OK, I recently learned of a new way to pirate stuff: Usenet. The first rule of Usenet is supposedly “don’t talk about Usenet”, to avoid having the RIAA/MPAA learn about its usefulness, but I’ll let you rationalist types in on the secret.
This appears to be the procedure for downloading pirated stuff off of Usenet (edit: googling around seems to yield improvements to this procedure, e.g. providers, indices, also this guide is more detailed):
Search on Binsearch.info or a similar Usenet search site to see if what you want exists on Usenet.
If it does, Giganews appears to be the most beginner-friendly Usenet provider (I assume once you get comfortable with Usenet, you can find a cheaper provider, but Giganews seems like a solid choice anyway). Sign up for Giganews (they give you a 2-week free trial, so you might want to plan out your downloads in advance to take advantage of the trial).
Use Binsearch to generate a .nzb file for the files you want to download (similar to a torrent file). Get an NZB downloader like SabNZBD. Configure it with the Giganews server (news.giganews.com) and your Giganews login credentials. Then feed it your .nzb file, which it should start to download.
Other Usenet client applications like Thunderbird and Pan have more capabilities, like allowing you to browse the Usenet newsgroup hierarchy, read messages, and post. As far as I can tell, Usenet is full of cranks, old people, spammers, tons of porn (much weird and some illegal), and tons of pirated stuff. I did find some relatively sane discussion here and there.
EDIT: A friend recommends https://put.io/ for an improved piracy experience. It’s not obvious from their website how it works, but you can google ”put.io piracy” for more info.
OK, I recently learned of a new way to pirate stuff: Usenet. The first rule of Usenet is supposedly “don’t talk about Usenet”, to avoid having the RIAA/MPAA learn about its usefulness, but I’ll let you rationalist types in on the secret.
This appears to be the procedure for downloading pirated stuff off of Usenet (edit: googling around seems to yield improvements to this procedure, e.g. providers, indices, also this guide is more detailed):
Search on Binsearch.info or a similar Usenet search site to see if what you want exists on Usenet.
If it does, Giganews appears to be the most beginner-friendly Usenet provider (I assume once you get comfortable with Usenet, you can find a cheaper provider, but Giganews seems like a solid choice anyway). Sign up for Giganews (they give you a 2-week free trial, so you might want to plan out your downloads in advance to take advantage of the trial).
Use Binsearch to generate a .nzb file for the files you want to download (similar to a torrent file). Get an NZB downloader like SabNZBD. Configure it with the Giganews server (news.giganews.com) and your Giganews login credentials. Then feed it your .nzb file, which it should start to download.
Other Usenet client applications like Thunderbird and Pan have more capabilities, like allowing you to browse the Usenet newsgroup hierarchy, read messages, and post. As far as I can tell, Usenet is full of cranks, old people, spammers, tons of porn (much weird and some illegal), and tons of pirated stuff. I did find some relatively sane discussion here and there.
EDIT: A friend recommends https://put.io/ for an improved piracy experience. It’s not obvious from their website how it works, but you can google ”put.io piracy” for more info.