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Now is a good time to remind users that you are placing some trust in the instance that you use. Lemmy is not anonymous. It is pseudo-anonymous. Your instance can do pretty much anything with your account up to and including turning your account into a sock puppet, and they know exactly where you’re connecting from.
With that said, it’s a lot better than most social media today that actively tries to violate your privacy at every turn.
This is part of why I signed up through FMHY. If anybody is going to try to protect my privacy it is probably going to be the very actively pro-piracy group.
To add to this: some instances require your email address, and others don’t.
Obviously there are plenty of other ways you won’t be really anonymous, but if it’s important to you, one step in mitigating issues is not to have an email associated with your account.
What about using something like a protonmail address for all social media email?
A good strategy, but still less secure by definition than no email at all.
Iirc proton mail has a backdoor. Though they likely won’t be used outside of ‘nať-sećurity interests’.
Guys, this is fact, also downvotes aren’t private.
You may know the answer to this. If I’ve signed up with no email, and whilst on a secure VPN, how are they going to track me?
Your instance could (edit: theoretically, if they’re running custom Lemmy code) track you by your browser fingerprint (screen size, installed fonts, plugins, etc.). Others could keep a profile on you based on what you comment/post/upvote and when.
So if I’m on an app instead of a browser, that app developer would have to provide info on me too?
As for what I comment/post/upvote, that’s not really what I’m asking about as that’s a profile on what I do, not who I am from an identifiable point of view (correct me if I’m wrong)
Depending on the content you post though, it could hypothetically be traced to you. Potentially even mundane things like mentions of geographic locations, word choices, common phrases you use, common topics – all of those could be considered at least partly identifying in the right contexts (assuming someone was looking for it and already had info about some particular cue that indicates you).
The point is: you can’t really be too careful, and realistically should assume there is always a way someone (including yourself) could be jeopardizing your privacy, if not overtly (by some kind of software or network tracking) then by holes in operational security.
Screen size?! I’ll just buy another monitor then.
You can always use https://10minutesemail.net/ for the required email. No muss no fuss
I’ve been partial to https://mailinator.com, but some services are getting wise to it (and blocking *@mailinator.com addresses). Thanks for sharing an alternative!
Piracy is part and parcel of the global economic system, and since that system hasn’t changed since time immemorial, well it always has been too.
The MPAA really is grasping for straws aren’t they. Ever since people were able to stream movies during the pandemic and found it was a much cheaper more enjoyable experience, they have been trying to invent ways to drive people back to the theaters. Now they are suffering major block buster busts and they have to point the finger at someone so they think, “it’s those darn Reddit pirates!” Its funny that they don’t realize they caused their own demise. But really I wonder, why specifically 2011?
2011 is well outside the Statute of Limitations for infringement…
That’s three years with some wiggle room for ongoing infringement.
This is likely an intimidation/shakedown thing.
Sounds more like they’re going after Grande. Belief being the testimony would allow them to build a case that Grande incited or somehow induced privacy which would strip them from a number of legal protections that may apply to service providers.
Could be that they’re looking to block similar usernames in their streaming services?
Disagree that it’s more enjoyable than going to the theaters. There is a social aspect of going to movies with friend groups that’s hard to replicate at home. People don’t have space to fit 12 friends to comfortably watch a new release.
Right? Yeah, piracy is the reason people don’t go to the movies. It has nothing to do with the overpriced, nasty concessions (cold, overly salty popcorn), dirty floors, uncomfortable “reclining” seats, gimmicks (4DX, RPX, XD), staff that can’t be bothered to turn off the lights at showtime or properly configure the sound systems. All while you’re paying $15 per ticket and $30 on snacks.
These morons live in an entirely different world.
Not to mention the comparison between watching a movie at home, where you know it will be silent, versus the risk of having at least one (but often more) groups of people who will not shut the fuck up the whole time.
Can also pause, rewind, fast forward, lie down, and more at home
Definitely gotta do more at home 😎👀
Hey babe want to movie theater and chill?
Arrr I see booty aboard me couch
The gap between reality and what corporate shills who probably don’t even use their own product think is reality is ever widening.
I think they are short staffed aka underpaid.
Agreed. That means that the current business model for movie theaters is unsustainable.
Yup. Where I’m at two tickets and two popcorn will be 60$…sixty fucking dollars, that’s a lot of fucking money to sit in some shitty seats listening to other people eat and slurp.
It’s funny because we subscribe to the AMC A-List and go to the movies quite a bit (obviously this is in the US). But it’s because a) we have a couple of AMC theatres close by, and b) it’s just me and my spouse, no kids involved. So it’s something that to us is worthwhile (having a night out a few times a months to see a movie on the big screen). Also, we never buy concessions. I can’t imagine how an average family with a bunch of kids can just go and drop over 100 bucks on tickets and concessions on any given night.
It has nothing to do with the overpriced, nasty concessions (cold, overly salty popcorn), dirty floors
Ugh, this just reminds me of all those times I went to the theater, and no matter where I walked I would hear the squish sound from my shoes coming into contact with something sticky… I do not miss that at all.
Scary but hey at least Reddit isn’t handing out the info so easily in this instance
Would be mad.
There are many topics people discuss that are problematic. Forget piracy. What about people from authoritarian regimes, people from countries that are in danger to fall to authoritarians, even if they haven’t yet. Anything from years ago could become problematic if the wrong government gets into power.
Making jokes about God is no deal under some regimes, it’s blasphemy in others.
Drugs are a problem in a lot of countries, and a literal death sentence in some.
Making fun of a fringe politician is nothing when they are not in power, but becomes a problem if they get into power.
I am sure Reddit gives some data in cases of actual danger, which is fair. But if they start to hand out data for something minor like piracy, it’s going to be a problem for discussion on the discussion plattform.
Whatever. It’s not really admissable. People talk about tons of things that they don’t actually do. For example, I talked today on teams about deleting a problematic app from our vcenter just so we didn’t have to deal with a compatible issue. Didn’t actually do it.
I was discussing trebucheting politicians off the white cliffs of Dover earlier today on Discord. Not gonna do that either. Sadly.
Why do you want to pollute the environment with toxic waste?
But sire is the trébuchets are locked and ready! Do not make us turn back!
Oh, well if we’ve come this far let’s get on with it!
They will if they get a nickel for doing it.
Thank goodness I only openly supported piracy from 2019 to 2023 with 5 different accounts lmao
Dodged a bullet there
🫡 not all of us were as forward thinking as you.
Your sacrifice won’t have been in vain
12 years ago, talking about piracy isn’t incriminating so why do the big movie companies need their info? So they can potentially intimidate them for more info they potentially don’t have?
Really no idea why that timeline. In 2010 I got an email from whatever ISP I was using at the time politely asking me to stop torrenting music. They basically said, hey we see you’re doing this, please stop or you can’t have internet through us anymore. That is when I learned what vpns and tor browser’s are for.
Seems absolutely bonkers that any corporation would be digging back that far for media pirates. Absolute waste of time.
I got a similar email once from my ISP, but it was more of a “this is your first and final warning”.
They might be looking for something specific. Like they are investigating an individual, or network of individuals, and this is just a piece of that investigation. I doubt they are asking for this to randomly look for opportunities to charge people with a crime related to piracy.
The time it would take to ask for these specific users and the research needed wouldnt amount to the number they would bring in if this would just be a shake down, I would guess you are right
If only we had legal avenues to obtain information from private companies… Oh well.
If you have a valid reason to investigate people, then you can get a fucking warrant. If your investigation isn’t into an actual criminal act, then maybe you don’t really need that data so bad.
Agreed. Glad Reddit seems to be doing the right thing here by acknowledging this.
For real. And even if they were to find the users, which is a longshot, those people could say, “no one tells the truth on the internet.”
This fishing expedition is a waste of resources.
Removed by mod
2011!?!? Lmfao
Why not just scrape it? 4head
2011?? seems like an awfully long time for them to still care.
Thats creepy as hell.
Makes me want to screen record DRM protected stuff and redistribute it right now :)
Yeah this is the kind of crap that encourages people to pirate simply to spite them.
And why are they demanding it? Just scrape it like the rest of us.
the one positive part of the reddit api changes 🤣
In a way this does make me slightpy concerned about Lemmy servers, Reddit has a team of lawyers and tonnes of funds behind it to fight pointless demands like these
A lot of server owners won’t and will be much easier to coax into giving up information about it’s users
I thought this instance was hosted in Germany. If this is the case, we can’t host files but we should be able to still link to them, correct? In this case, Lemmy should be safe as long as we aren’t uploading files ourselves and hosting them.
That’s it guys, everyone start using iVPN, and Mullvad. 🤣
Both IVPN and Mullvad have just removed port forwarding. I hear the options now are proton (which I hear may not have port forwarding on linux yet, but say they will) and AirVPN.
Port forwarding can be abused and also, exploited. I believe this was smart for many reasons, just get a secondary cheap VPN like IPVanish, NordVPN, VyprVPN, CyberGhost, any of those for DOWNLOADING would be sufficient enough. I would use only Mullvad or iVPN for anything I’d be taking very seriously however.
While it can be abused, it can also not be abused, surprisingly enough. I don’t want a secondary cheap vpn for DOWNLOADING, I happen to SEED, you leech, and also use slsk which means I now can’t connect to anyone who also can’t forward their ports because they also use one of your cheap VPNs with no port forwarding for DOWNLOADING.
You are condescending, have added no new info, and you’re clearly just a leech, I’m pretty done with this conversation, sorry “pal.”
Wah, wah, wah. Some random guy on the internet with an opinion that differs from my own has voiced it on a federated social media platform!
Get a seed box and stop your little childish bitch-like behavior. Mr. “I’m a Seeder” 🤣🤣
I can see you don’t take your OPSEC very seriously then by not properly knowing and learning the facts about services like port forwarding and uPnP which auto forwards ports for example. Very dangerous shit if you don’t know what you’re doing and that’s just how it is man. Mullvad has been around since 2009, I think they know EXACTLY HOW to protect themselves and their users based on what I have seen so far in the judicial system.
Haha, good luck dude, and thank you for the laugh!
Wah wah wah, I called some guy out for being a leech and he is now mad at me, whatever will I do?!
Go “danger” your own colon, I’m done talking to you.
Lmao you’re in shambles my guy, why do you quote everything? Force of habit, or a severe misunderstanding of the English language? Don’t leaveeeee, you really brighten up my day sunshine 🤣🤣🤣
Alternatively, run TOR and a VPN while downloading. The speed will suck, but you should be way harder to track
I agree, though this is better for over night downloads, (sometimes they can fail overnight sadly), but I would always recommend using that combo for downloading small files under 100MB that contain sensitive information or require strong security protocols.
The thing is, chasing individual instances is a game of whack-a-mole, with a lot of downside and not a lot of upside. Established companies follow laws and regulations because they are easy targets, with local assets, offices, and public figures that are worth serving/seizing and can be compelled to comply to court orders. How TF you going to enforce a court order in a country that doesn’t recognize your jurisdiction or laws?
The other thing thing is, if you run an instance with moderation rules that skirt the law, you are incentivised not to log personal information and disseminate it because a) that makes you a target, and b) you’ll get called out by your own users for logging and leaking IPs, and people will just move to a different server.
It seems pretty obvious to me that you should assume at all times when you are online that you are basically in a public space, like in a public cafe: People can see you, even if the fact that they are not paying close attention to you creates the illusion of privacy. If you start doing something to stand out, people will start to pay attention to you, and it’s all visible to see unless you actively take precautions to hide your identity. That starts–but doesn’t end–with not browsing piracy on main.
Imagine when film companies pay Google for access to pirate’s gmail registrations. I’m glad I switched to Protonmail years ago. Any of these “free” services will sell your information for the right price.
