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Torrenting exposes your public IP. In a country where government doesn't care, does that pose a risk? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by TheHooligan95@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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I honestly don't believe I will have any legal trouble because I don't do anything like cp or worse, I just pirate media I like, not even porn. But across users of communities, or on public trackers, is IP exposure something to be concerned about?

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[-] vk6flab@lemmy.radio 13 points 7 months ago

I just pirate media I like

In other words, your computer is downloading stuff from other computers, that's potentially receiving stolen property, but a potential argument might be that you didn't know that it was stolen. It's not a good argument, but it's an argument. So you're an individual who potentially broke the law. Depending on how much money you have, you might get a knock on your door.

But then, you also distribute that potentially stolen property to other computers, because that's how BitTorrent works, and now you're part of a distribution network dealing with stolen property. The chances that once you've discovered you come away with just a slap on the wrist are slim to none.

How do they find you?

Through your IP address.

How?

By figuring out who owns that address, who loaned it to you to get online at that specific time. One packet at a time the research will bring them closer to knocking on your door.

So, is it a big deal that your public IP address is linked to torrenting? Yes it is.

Is this the whole story? Not by a long shot, but it's not my job to teach you how to break the law.

[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net -4 points 7 months ago

Torrent on public access wifi from McDonald's, the local library, your neighbor's unsecured router, etc...

[-] vk6flab@lemmy.radio 5 points 7 months ago

If you think that will protect you, there is a lot for you to learn..

[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 2 points 7 months ago

Pray tell how they would find the user from an IP address that will resolve to a location other than where they live that they connect to anonymously?

[-] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I think McDonald's makes you make an account these days to use their WiFi, I could be wrong, however. This means you now have identifying information about you and your connection on McDonald's servers, which can be subpoenaed in an investigation.
Local libraries generally require you to have a Libary Card, which is associated with your library login. Because lots of people need library computers, they need to be able to get people to leave the computer without having to physically remove them. One of those ways is with tracking who is connecting by associating their account with a library card and disconnecting them automatically after a period of time. Your library usually wants you to live (or at least exist in) the neighborhood, and will have your name and address on file. This can also be subpoenaed in an investigation.
MAC address spoofing is trivial, sure, but a lot of folks don't know to do it, and in any one of these cases, if they used the MAC address that was burned in when the product was sold, they have a real opportunity to nail down which specific device connected. They would subpoena the manufacturer for records of where that device was sold, they would subpoena the records of the local retail outlet, and have information on the sale of the device used to connect.
In your neighbors case, you could just be condemning them to civil or criminal liabilities, depending on the laws in your jurisdiction. That's a pretty "not nice" thing to do.

I'm sure there's plenty of others. Those are just off the top of my head. Most of the reasons involve "companies keeping information about who uses their services and how," often called "logs."

There's a lot more information than just an IP being sent in a TCP packet.

To be clear, I'm not the person you were responding to originally and I think OP is fine if piracy is legal where they live, you just asked how it would be possible and so I tried to think of ways related to the suggestions you made. Cheers.