Recently, my wife and I had a shouting match over piracy which went nowhere other than making me realize I couldn’t back up my positions on anything other than the higher-level ethics stuff.
The argument went something like this:
Wife: piracy is federal crime, federal crimes mean federal prison, i don’t want you going to federal prison
Me: thats not how that works
Wife: how do you know? What if they got a court order against you and you had to supply all your files to them
Me: incoherent monkey tantrum noises
To clarify, she is fine with piracy, she just is scared of me getting caught. And my position was “nuh uh!”
My understanding is that the biggest point of risk (of actual legal consequences, specifically) is when you are the one propagating files (because the feds will go after uploaders when able) and when using public torrents (if i forget to use a VPN, dmca snitches might send a “stop pirating” notice to my landlord who owns the router our internet goes through). Not 100% percent sure why these are the risky things, though, and I’m not sure if there’s other things i need to be on my toes about.
The argument i have more trouble with figuring out how to answer is the question of “what if the feds change their strategy for some reason and start playing whack-a-mole with individual pirates like me?” What do I do to future-proof myself? Is just using a VPN across all my devices enough?
Nobody can force you to supply all your files. Any search must be specific and with particular intent. You don’t have to assist them either they have to get it themselves. If you’re worried about searches seizures fully encrypt your PC. Not that hard on windows and a a single checkbox on install with most Linux distros (also easy to do afterwards). You never have to provide a password.
You’re not going to be charged though unless you’re really hated by the police. Nor will you be caught if you use a VPN. It’s just not going to happen. What’s more likely is a civil suit from a company you’ve pirated from but even that’s incredibly unlikely unless you’re prolific with seeding your downloads.
Always remember cops are legally allowed to lie to you they can and do break the law and you should never speak to them more than legally needed. (Provide name\license maybe place of residence depending on where you are and the crime investigated) don’t talk to cops otherwise ask for a lawyer and keep asking until provided one. Doesn’t matter if it’s a traffic stop or murder case innocent or guilty
Depending on where the alleged offenses were committed, not decrypting that for which the authorities have a warrant to analyze can be a crime in itself. I’m all for encryption, but without plausible deniability - something that VeraCrypt offers with their hidden volumes feature - encryption might by itself not get you far. Again, depending on the jurisdiction in question. And depending on whether the authorities really want to invest the time and money into “catching” one pirate. And, finally, at least encryption gives you the choice not to decrypt on demand. I just wanted to give encryption some nuance.