Is a selfhosted VPN viable for piracy? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by Sasori323@lemmy.world to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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Hey everyone! One of my main issues with piracy in general are VPNs, because I absolutely HATE subscription services.

As far as i'm concerned, we need VPNs so that when torrenting, people cant see our IP adress and other information that can be potentially used againt us. I've heard that there's people who log those IP adresses so that they can like "report" people doing piracy or sth like that. Correct me if i'm wrong.

So, with this purpose in mind, I understand that VPN services are useful because they can help hide our real information. But as I said, I dont like subscription services and I saw that there's the option to selfhost a VPN.

But I thought a bit about it, and, if I'm using a selfhosted VPN using, for example, a raspberry pi or a laptop, isn't the imformation of that laptop ALSO potentially dangerous? Because it is connected to your own ISP and it has the same location as you have (if you set it up at yout home).

I know this may sound dumb, but I don't know much about this. And I can't find information about this.

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[-] SYLOH@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Your self-hosted VPN has to be plugged into the internet somewhere. If that IP address is associated with you, the VPN hasn't done anything.

The number of people who are using the VPN server also lends plausible deniability.
"No I wasn't pirating anything! That was someone else! I was just using it because I like my privacy and don't trust my government to not snoop on it!"

[-] pirate@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago

Especially when there are thousands of people using same vpn and shared ip. Plausible deniability sky rockets 1,000%+ This is why it is a good idea to use well established vpn with many users than hosting your own vpn on own server.