cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/7438737

I am assuming Stalin would approve of this since he literally robbed trains. Also he’s so handsome. So thats why hes my thumbnail.

Recently I have kind of realized that the way I use the internet isnt as common as I thought. I don’t watch ads ever, and I pirate a lot. I thought id share some methods and hopefully help others get a better online experience.

So I know theres a few piracy communities around that might work for some of this stuff, but its not all piracy and I want more people to see it so here we are

I wanted to make this because I think a lot of people don’t realize just how easy it is to save money, and time online. Even if you know some of these methods hopefully a few will be new to you.

Time to learn how to look like this IRL

We will go through some stages. Basic, Advanced, and Torrenting methods.

Basic

First things first is the web browser we are going to use. This guide will be based on FLOORP. A Fire Fox fork. Its what I use for general web use. For more privacy centric folks switch it out for LibreWolf and all this should still work fine with some tweaking. Or any Firefox variant.

Browser Extensions: Get these from the firefox extension store.

Ublock Origin: General adblock and doesn’t need much configuring. If it doesn’t block something you want gone you can right click it and block it manually.

Alternative Player for Twitch.tv: This will add a new web player for twitch streams which will block ads in the streams. It will drop the resolution while it blocks them to 480p and say “Hiding Ads” in the corner. I am pretty sure the streamer still gets paid since it has no way to know you arent watching them.

ClearURLs: Removes tracking elements from URLs

I still don’t care about cookies: Will get rid of annoying cookie pop ups on most sites by just accepting them automatically.

Sponsorblock for YouTube – Skip Sponsorships: Names self explanatory. Community powered so some new videos wont be flagged yet. You can configure what is skipped and isnt.

A few others I find useful, Dont Track Me Google, Twitch Channel Points Autoclicker, Unwanted Twitch, Youtube-shorts block, Pinyin Web(For learning chinese), Dark Reader.

Now at this point your browser should be basically ad free and debloated. I recommend messing with FLOORPs settings if you used that its got some nice customization options.

Now lets make use of it to get some free content.

Anime: https://kaa.mx/ or https://hianime.to/tv

TV/Movies: https://movies5.online/

Overall list of pirating sites and other useful things: https://fmhy.net/ This has all kinds of stuff. Definitely worth checking out. It even has textbooks for school.

I cannot stress enough that I would not go to piracy sites without the above adblocking setup or something similar. Theyre usually full of crazy ads some of which could have malware. With ads blocked ive never had issues though.

Advanced

Music: Many people use spotify. If you do I recommend not buying premium, and instead using SpotXBash. Or the windows alternative. This one works for Linux and Mac. You run the script, and your spotify is ad free. It does require terminal usage, and theres always the risk your spotify account gets banned if they detect it. It’ll need re running every now and then as updates can mess it up. I’ve never been banned but if your worried about it make a new account for it. https://github.com/SpotX-Official/SpotX-Bash

Now you may be thinking, like I did, “I wish I didn’t have to stream my music. Just let me download it.”

Thats where spotdl comes in. https://github.com/spotDL/spotify-downloader

Theres a tutorial on getting it setup on the github. Once its ready its pretty simple you make a playlist on your newly ad free spotify, run the command spotdl with the link to it, and itll grab all the songs off youtube if theyre available. Quick and easy music piracy. Not perfect as sometimes you get music video versions but its pretty good.

I’ve downloaded hundreds of songs this way, and its nice to have when you don’t have internet, and the powers out or something.

Also if you don’t want to use youtube at all due to privacy reasons now we have a more advanced option for you. FreeTube. Its an app that works on all OS’s as far as I have seen even mobile, and works as a youtube frontend. You can even use invidious as the way to get videos for even more privacy. https://freetubeapp.io/

Torrenting

Ok if you’ve been following along this far its time to take a breather. Depending on where you are, and who your ISP is this part can be pretty risky. You might get letters in the mail, might get fined, could even get sued in some places.

That being said I can show you how to do it safely.

First we are going to buy something. Mullvad VPN. Its the only VPN id recommend getting. It is 5.50$ or so a month, and if you cancel your streaming accounts it’ll pay for itself now that you’ll be pirating stuff with it.

Once youve bought and setup Mullvad we can continue. Go here: https://mullvad.net/en/check

Its going to check that the VPN is working correctly. You should see 3 green boxes that say Using Mullvad, No DNS leaks, No WebRTC leaks. If you have that go into Mullvads settings. Under VPN settings Kill Switch, and Lockdown Mode should be turned ON. This will prevent your computer from connecting to the internet with anything but the VPN.

Now we are gong to get qBitTorrent. This is our torrenting client. Your gonna install it, click settings, advanced, and look for “Network Interface.” There will be a drop down menu. Click it and select the mullvad option. Mine is “wg0-mullvad” then click apply.

Your now ready to torrent and cannot be tracked by the other leechers or seeders. So you wont get those DMCA letters.

Now where do we find things to torrent? That wiki I linked earlier has some stuff. For games https://fitgirl-repacks.site/ is a great option. She recently repacked The Last of Us Part II remastered.

You’ll copy the magnet link, put that into Qbittorrent, and let it do its thing. Once its done you’ll pause the torrent. Assuming you don’t want to keep seeding it for other people downloading. Then open up the files and it’ll be an easy installer.

So to recap. You should no longer be seeing ads online, no longer be paying for stupid streaming services, and be getting lots of music, and games for free. Plus you get the added bonus of making liberals and capitalists mad by not giving them your money. If your well off take the money you saved and do mutual aid, if your poor like me and couldn’t afford this stuff anyway, enjoy!

P.S. If you are worried about not supporting certain independent creators and stuff while doing this keep in mind direct donations are still an option for pretty much everything. Most youtubers have a patreon or something for example.

Corporation simps when they find out you arent giving Disney all your money: