why would one hide his IP-address before downloading torrent?
In: Technology
IP addresses are identifying information – they are typically assigned to a single connection for a single account.
The owners of the content being torrented will often join the swarm, copy all of the IPs, and then send letters to the ISPs that allocated the IP addresses telling them to cease and deist. Your ISP may disable your connection or just hand over your information to them outright, leading to you being sued.
For this reason, many people who torrent use log-free VPNs. This way, when the content owner gets an IP address, it is the address of a VPN server in a different country that has no legal obligation to comply with the cease and desist.
It’s a way to protect yourself from being tracked. If someone’s watching your activity, and you give them the wrong IP address to watch, then it makes it that much harder for them to prosecute you or issue you a fine.
Many years ago, I got a nastygram regarding something I may have pirated, traced to my IP, but nothing came of it. Nowadays I don’t think they even bother. Not much they can do about, really.
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