It sucks that at this point both systems suck. Apple is not great but at least it’s been pretty stable. If Apple allowed side loading that would be the dream.

It literally is. They solved music piracy by adopting all in one licensing with services like Spotify. If they released a subscription platform that included all movies and tv shows for a reasonable price I’d instantly sub. Instead we get the current enshittification mess.

Yeah I was watching a show recently on Prime and now they are injecting 1min plus long ads like every 10-20 minutes. It’s worse than watching cable tv.

I find this so ironic. For so many years the US has been sort of the anti-piracy centre of the world. Now their just blatantly allowing piracy for the sake of progress.

I’ve been using this setup for a bit. Super simple and hassle free. I enjoy self hosting but in terms of simplicity, you really cannot beat Stremio combined with a debrid sub.

It it incredibly difficult to vet with 100% certainty that a binary you run it safe. If you have the source code, its so much easier. As others have said, the best way in piracy to be safe is downloading from a reputable source. Monkrus is pretty good. I am assuming you’re referring to the Adobe master collection? If so, GenP is excellent (and open source).

If you are on windows, one thing you can do is run any programs in sandboxie and see what it writes to the disc. If it tries to edit things that it shouldn’t like the registry or parts of the os that would be a red flag.

You could also setup firewall rules to block the application from accessing the internet. I am on macOS so I use a program called little snitch (lulu by objective see is also good). I am not familiar with the windows side of things. But essentially what I do is block the program and any processes it starts.

If you want to learn more about malware, https://objective-see.org/ is a great resource. It’s macOS focused however but I’ve learned a ton from it. In particular their book on mac malware teaches a lot of analysis techniques.

Welcome to the private tracker community! It is a lovely place to be.

I personally am not a member of torrentleech but here is some advice to get you started!

1. Make use of the bonus points system

Typically most private trackers have some sort of economy in which permaseeding is rewarded with points. These points can then be used to buy upload credit to improve your ratio.

2. Download freeleech content

Often they also have freeleech content that does not count towards you download (thus preserving your ratio). Most trackers require you maintain a certain ratio. At first you can just manually search or download new freeleech content. Eventually, you may want to set up autobrr to automatically download new freeleech torrents. Other users have provided helpful links to get you started. Keep in mind as you explore other trackers some do not allow autobrr to be used.

3. Get connectable

The need for a VPN is not always as crucial as it is for public torrents. That being said, sometimes it is difficult to get connectable (forward ports) on your home network. Thus some users use a VPN such as AirVPN that allow port forwarding. You don’t need to be connectable to seed, however you are unable to seed to other non-connectable users (thus decreasing your upload potential).

4. Avoid the forums and chat

This advice is often over said and most of the time the forums and chat are pretty decent. It comes from the odd power hungry moderator getting a bit too ban happy. However, what I will say is avoiding the chat and forums is not a terrible idea if you are not too familiar with the sites rules. Sometimes they are very specific and can get you if your not paying attention.

5. Upload content once you are familiar with the site

Once you feel comfortable with the above, uploading can really help your ratio. Make sure you follow all the rules of torrentleech if you are going to upload. Often private trackers have very strict and stringent rules. This is why I generally don’t recommend uploading if you’re new to the whole torrents scene.

Typically, the uploading process goes something like this. Create the .torrent file using qbittorrent or something similar. Make sure you mark the torrent as private in the creation tool and include your unique tracker url (you get this from the private tracker). Upload the .torrent file and actual file to your seedbox (or if you’re just seeding from the computer begin seeding once you create the torrent). Sometimes you need to do a force recheck to get it seeding. Then you upload the torrent to the private tracker and add relevant metadata. Force re-announce the torrent on qbittorrent and it usually shows up. You will need to be connectable to upload.