VPN needed for using Soulseek? (slrpnk.net)

submitted 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) by Sunny@slrpnk.net to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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Hiya,

Working on completely replacing Spotify completely. Soulseek has popped up a few times here and there among forums and here on lemmy, so I thought I'd give that a go. I've started with getting Nicotine+ client and seems to be working fine. However, what does the traffic look like when downloading/uploading things over the Soulseek network? I read its peer-to-peer network, but does that mean I don't need a VPN? I'm also told to open a port on my router, I'm assuming this is so that I can share my own library with the rest of the network, but how safe is this?

If anyone could help my clarify this I'd greatly appreciate it!

Edit: Just found this very promising project too! https://github.com/slskd/slskd

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[-] platoose@feddit.uk 7 points 4 weeks ago

you should probably use a VPN if you’re uploading because it’s trivial for law enforcement to track - there’s no Onion routing or anything like that, and anyone can register and search

but for downloading / leeching I wouldn’t be as worried because very generally speaking people aren’t harassed for downloading, only sharing

[-] sxan@midwest.social 5 points 4 weeks ago

but for downloading / leeching I wouldn’t be as worried because very generally speaking people aren’t harassed for downloading

Comcast and Verizon will threaten to shut off your account if you're caught pirating; I think they don't even wait for a DCMA request, they just look at your traffic and if you're doing piratey stuff, you get a nastigram email. I don't know how many strikes you get before they enforce it, but the point is they do pursue downloaders.