Hello pirates! I’ve recently started high school, which means that I now get money from the state, which also means that my parents no longer pay for my Spotify premium. I could probably afford it, but I’d rather save my money, so I’ve been looking into different ways of obtaining music for free.

One thing that really caught my eye is Soulseek. It seems like a good option for my needs + I could set up a server on my raspberry pi to be able to access all of my music from anywhere.

My biggest concern is getting in trouble with the authorities, because my parents would kill me if the cops came knocking on our door due to me pirating stuff. So I was wondering whether it would be worth it to spend some money on a VPN (and which one), or if I should just raw dog it and not use a VPN at all? I live in Sweden, and I haven’t found any cases of people getting arrested for pirating music, but it is technically illegal afaik.

Thankful for any answers!

  • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    I’d say yes VPN, even if piracy were legal I don’t need my peers knowing my IP. For slsk port forwarding is more important than it is for torrenting as well, so I’d reccomend one that lets you do that, like AirVPN (who I will also soon be switching to, Mullvad the one I have now recently removed port forwarding, I’m just too poor to switch yet) or protonvpn.

    • StickBugged@lemm.eeOP
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      1 year ago

      Is there any reason to have port forwarding on a VPN if I’m only going to use Soulseek?

      • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        Because soulseek requires port forwarding.

        If your port isn’t forwarded you can only connect to those who’s port is forwarded, effectively locking yourself out of peers who also don’t have a port forwarded as well.

      • Moonrise2473
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        1 year ago

        The protocol doesn’t allow transmission with closed ports, so you can download but upload is impossibile.

        • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 year ago

          Not necessarily, I’m stuck without a port rn (thanks Mullvad) and I can still upload. The issue is if you don’t have a port forwarded you can only connect to people that do, but if you do have a port forwarded you can connect to everyone thus making your list of potential peers longer.