1y ago

Is there something like the pirate bay but for direct downloads?

Im honestly scared to get into pirating but some things are just way too overpriced. i know theres the piract bay and such sites but it requires torrecting and a vpn but i cant afford a vpn so is there like a direct downloads version of the pirete bay or a safer alternative? im looking to get a few peices of media by the way.

also how do you all store so much media without issues or getting into trouble? also am i aksing the wrong place by chance?

i know there is internet archive but i find it hard to find what you are looking for and kinda clunky.

29 comments

It depends what you are looking for. NES Roms? You can use Internet Archive and a download manager. Some romance playlist you made on Spotify and now want to burn on a CD? You can use a converter that will fetch MP3 files from YouTube.
The megathread is the place to look.
You may want to look into Usenet. There is a price involved but it's not significantly more than a VPN.
To store stuff I use large hard drives. Most of my data is on one other device so those drives act as a back up in a way. It's unlikely both devices fail at the same time
- thank you for the info also i plan to do manly books and movies/shows, also could you link me the megathread if i might ask or if you dont mind... also i will probrably use tor but idk if that is enough.
  
  If you are using direct downloads you probably don't even need Tor. You should avoid torrenting through Tor. It puts unnecessary strain a volunteer network
  
  Books are pretty easy for direct downloads. Try these: https://libgen.is/ https://annas-archive.org/
  
  Try Libby for books. It's not downloading them but you can use your library card for free ebooks and audiobooks
  
  For movies/shows you can get DDL from sites like pahe.li and olamovies For books you can download from libgen / zlib or annas archive You can find our wiki/megathread at https://fmhy.ml or https://fmhy.pages.dev
  
  Megathread: https://fmhy.pages.dev/
- PS2 and PS3 games are also abundant in Internet Archive. Using IDM (or you could use any multipart downloader you like), I can usually download from there at my max speed (which is only 65mbps but still).

Closest thing would be the Usenet, which is paid. (Decently cheap, but still.)
Seedboxes and DMCA ignore VPS's exist, which is how a lot of DDLs and streaming sites live. You can also encrypt it before uploading (although you'll have to decrypt it afterwards.) For archiving, Telegram has 2GB file limits but is free and unlimited total storage.

Unfortunately I think paying for an anonymizing service of some kind is required. It’s easier to afford if you just go all in and drop all of your paid streaming services. But that can be difficult to get everyone in the household to agree on.
Seedbox services are a little more money, but for around $30/month you get a computer located in a country which doesn’t care about data piracy. It downloads torrents for you and you can just log in later and download the files to your home machine.

Closest thing I've found was /r/OpenDirectories on the site that shall not be named. Which is to say, no there's not really any such thing as "Pirate Bay but for direct downloads." At least not that I've found.
Pirate Bay but for direct downloads does seem like something that might be able to thrive on the dark web, though, doesn't it? I wonder why something like that hasn't become a thing and gotten big.
I suppose some site that just acts like a searchable directory of links to IPFS could be used in combination with IPFS web adapter sites. But I haven't found anything like that.
- I wonder why something like that hasn't become a thing and gotten big.
  Not only is tor not used by the majority of pirates, it also limits speeds by a lot. Not to mention you can't index onion links in search engines. But I mean, you wouldn't need a VPN with it, so...
  
  I guess I must not mind whatever speed limits there are, because I use yt-dlp over Tor frequently.
  I'm not sure what you mean by "you can't index onion links in search engines", though.

You don't need a VPN to download torrents
- Well yes and no, it truly depends on your location and ISP.
  
  You sound like someone who has never had their ISP send them a warning letter.
- Really depends on the country you are in.
- You sound like someone who has never had their ISP send them a warning letter.
- Personally I would always err on the side of caution, but up to you my friend.
- Mine has literally shut off my internet a couple times from torrenting.

29 comments