Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ @lemmy.dbzer0.com Blxter @lemmy.zip 10mo ago

Starting to use "soulseek" do I need VPN

So I use a VPN when torrenting as per usual but with Soulseek I wish to share my music with others and that requires me to open a port. I have no problem doing so I just do not pay for a VPN that can do this at the current price I am paying. Is it possible/what are the chances of me getting in trouble ISP wise from using soulseek with no VPN. With where I live I would get in trouble with no VPN and torrents for clarity.
I see posts from years ago saying no just wondering if things have changed.

Thanks

36 comments

As far as I know you don't need a VPN to use Soulseek, but it's obviously always recommended to use one over not using one.
- but it’s obviously always recommended to use one over not using one
  
  Why? Why does it matter whether your traffic is visible to your ISP or a VPN company?
  
  Because you are doing something illegal. Your ISP might not care, but if someone complains, they HAVE to start the process. You're not only protecting yourself, but your ISP from the music industry's wrath.
  
  It's more about being visible to other users. If other users have your IP address, they can go to your ISP and complain about your IP address sharing copyrighted material. In certain jurisdictions they have to give out your info so that legal action can be taken against you.
  
  If you use a VPN, they only know that somebody using this VPN is sharing copyrighted material. Since VPNs usually do not log who sends what, they can't be made to give out users data, so you're safe.
Could somebody complain to your ISP? Yes.

Is this likely to happen? No.

I've been using slsk for about 20 years, and I've never gotten a warning about it. If I start torrenting, I'll get a warning from my ISP tomorrow. I think that it's considered too obscure to be worth monitoring.
- Survivorship bias
  
  This would possibly be applicable if Soulseek users were having action taken against them, but has that ever happened? Action taken against individual pirates has pretty focused on bittorrent users. I know Soulseek itself has been sued, but have any users?
- What is your secret to stand the literal neonazis there?
  
  I'm not aware of any neo-Nazis (literal or otherwise). I don't spend any time in the chat rooms, though.
Haven't used soulseek in about a decade, so things might have changed, but back then my workaround was this: I search for what I want, find a person who's sharing it, and if their library was good I'd allow them to see my library before downloading from them.

So basically I'd share with folks I downloaded from, but not the general public. Not foolproof, but drastically reduced chance that somebody with a well-curated library was there just to prosecute.
- Wouldn't a well curated library be the ultimate honeypot?
- If all users do the same soulseek would be dead.
  
  True. Now I pay for VPN with port forwarding, so if I were to use soulseek again I'd just share. Back then I was in the same boat as OP and couldn't afford a VPN.
Tailscale has the Funnel feature that doesn't require an open port (well, it's a UPnP port), and maintains an encrypted tunnel to your music server for anyone you decide to share it with.

Alternatively you could get as many of your friends to use Tailscale itself to minimize the need for the Funnel feature (so anyone you know get them using TS, for the general sharing let it happen via Funnel).

Tailscale is free, and easy to setup.
- Definitely looking into tailscale thanks for this.
  
  Edit: Did not solve original problem but was the solution to other things I have been doing. Unless I am mistaken I can not use the funnel feature to open ports the way that is needed.
- This is awesome, do you happen to know a tutorial for this? I have tried google but only some youtube videos that are worst than nothing
Anytime you switch from consumer to sharer, you run some heavier risks.

Plex should be a cautionary tale
Soulseek is Peer To Peer like a torrent. You will likely run into legal trouble, if that program is monitored more heavily.
I would recommend using a VPN. Since it is p2p, theres a non zero chance that you might get in trouble. Some ISPs don't care and will only act if DMCAed.
using it in Germany without VPN since ages and never got a letter from anyone :)
jeez, soul seek? how about limewire or napster or telegram lol
- Bro, don't crap on SoulSeek. Music collectors all over the world use it. You can find some rare gems on there you won't find in Spotify, Tidal, YouTube or any other music platform.
  
  And comparing it to limewire is kind of unfair.
  
  Honestly I was sleeping on soulseek for a while it is a great source of music.
  
  Who is crapping on anything? I just haven't heard of SoulSeek since the days of Limewire. longer even

36 comments