The BitTorrent protocol was not designed with security in mind. Though very rare, you could even face time in jail, though in the vast majority of the world, users will simply see a steep fine.

Since none of your personal information is protected during transmission, the police would have full access. Without a VPN, you’re left to fend for yourself in court. Especially for countries where it is a criminal matter, police often have “crackdowns” where they sweep popular torrents for IP addresses from their country and then subpoena ISPs in a similar manner to Copyright Trolls. Police Involvementĭepending on the country where you are and the nature of the material you’re torrenting, police may become involved.

Users are given little choice other than to pay up. The settlement amount is usually steep but far less than it would end up being in court. The owner of the Internet account then receives a letter detailing what they have been caught unlawfully sharing and an offer of settlement. If you aren’t using a VPN, your home IP address will be exposed to Copyright Trolls, allowing them to obtain a subpoena for your personal information. They log upload and download times, amounts, and speeds of each IP address connected. They simply “sit” in swarms on torrents of recently released or highly profitable copyrighted material. “Copyright Troll” is a pejorative term used to describe teams of unscrupulous lawyers who actively target small-time BitTorrent users.

Torrenting without vpn