Before you begin to plunder the Seven seas, you must prepare for all those traps and horrifying DMCA. Fret not! This article shall help you in your journey.

Last update: 1st February 2020

First article: 4th December 2018

This post will be updated slowly. If you have any recommendations do comment down below.

Most of these recommendations are based on reddit.com/r/piracy and my own personal experience so i can guranteed you will be the BEST pirate in this Digital Age.

Contents:

  1. VPNs
  2. Browser Extensions
  3. Userscripts
  4. Torrenting
# Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)

VPN is commonly associated with piracy. However, in this age of Global Mass Surveillance, VPN is essential to protect your privacy online.

![VPN](https://xvp.akamaized.net/assets/public/what-is-vpn/what-is-vpn-small-9d5e7dae62d39cbc287d45d89df766ba.png)

VPN connects users to a private network of selected country before connecting to a public network, to encrypt their network data. Therefore, your government or Internet Service Provider (ISP) won’t know what you are browsing.

Why use VPN?

  • Secure transactions with VPN

  • Circumvent Geo-restrictions and censorship (Google in China)

  • Protect personal identity and location to remain anonymous on the internet

VPN services typically market their services very aggresively around the internet. Online users should keep aware that someone’s user experience with a particular VPN services may vary due to location, servers, and downtime. Do not subscribe to a VPN service, just because it is popular and cheap.

An alternative to subscribing a particular VPN service, is by hosting the server outside your country’s jurisdiction.

Beware of free VPNs, do not entrust any sensitive data with them. Most free VPNs are able to provide their services for free because they do data mining and sell those datas to other companies.

You are entrusting your personal data to an unknown entity. Be sure to do your own research and don’t forget to read their ToS!

I am a proud user of ExpressVPN. Their services are great and i have not experienced any problem with it in the past 2 years. The oddest think i found with ExpressVPN is that, Brunei is available as one of the country. WHO THE FUCK IS HOSTING THE SERVICE IN BRUNEI?

Useful resources:

VPN Subscription Services:

Self-hosted Services:

  • OpenVPN - A very flexible VPN solution that is well-renowned in the industry

  • ZeroTier - A peer-to-peer multiplatform VPN, commonly used for gaming

# Browser Extensions

I won’t argue what web-browser you are using, but FIREFOX is the best web-browser out there ever since the Quantum update. There are just far too many Chromium based web-browsers that only add a few new features which can be installed easily with browser extensions.

Legit?

Nowadays, website are full of scripts and ads that increases your CPU usage, which is really annoying to browse the internet with a weak computer. Furthermore, some of the ads are very intrusive and obscene. Thankfully, there are browser extensions available to combat such problems.

Most of the browser extensions listed down here are available on other browsers. Else, there are alternative and similar extensions.

  • HTTPS Everywhere - Encrypts network with all major websites

  • Decentraleyes - Protects against tracking through localised CDN (Content Delivery Network)

  • Privacy Badger - Blocks spying ads and invisible trackers

  • uBlock Origin - Best Adblocker out there! Fast and Low CPU usage

  • uBlock Origin Extra - Companion extension to uBlock Origin, that block ad-block extensions

  • Nano Adblocker - Based on uBlock Origin, an alternative to the OG version

  • Nano Defender - An anti-Adblock defuser for Nano Adblocker and uBlock Origin

  • ScriptSafe - Gives user control of the web and more secure browsing while emphasizing simplicity and intuitiveness

  • NoScript - Same as above, but BETTER

  • TamperMonkey - Most popular userscript manager

  • ViolentMonkey - Highly regarded open source userscript manager

# Userscripts

Userscript is a blessing in this age. Most of the scripts are open-source, so you can read through the scripts to ensure there is no malicious things going on.

VM

To use userscripts, either install TamperMonkey or ViolentMonkey. I prefer using ViolentMonkey due to it being opensource and updated faster than TamperMonkey.

Useful userscripts:

  • AdsByPasser - To skip countdown ads and prevent pop-up ads

  • AntiAdware - To avoid installing unwanted applications downloaded with a legitimate software (e.g. McAfee with Adobe Flash)

  • AdGuard Popup Blocker - To block pop-up ads

  • Hide Fake Torrents on TPB - To hide fake torrents in ThePirateBay based on conditional logic

  • IMDb-Scout - Add links in IMDb pages to torrent sites

  • Openload - Remove anti-Adblock, ads, pop-ups, and timer waits, and show direct download link on OpenLoad

  • Anti-anti-copy - Allows copying text in websites that prevents you to do so

  • Google Drive Direct Links - Shows direct link for Google Drive

  • Google Image “View Image” Button - WHY THE FUCK DID GOOGLE REMOVE DIS FUNCTIONALITY?

  • MAL-Sync - Intergrates MyAnimeList into various sites, with auto episode tracking

  • MoreCAPTCHA - Speeds up solving Google reCAPTCHA challenges by shortening transition effects and providing continuous selection ability

  • Get DLC Info from SteamDB - To automatically create a DLC list for tools such as CreamAPI, GreenLuma and SmartSteamEmu

# Torrenting

As i ventured through the 7 Seas, i still see pirates using µTorrent. My fellow pirates, you should never use µTorrent ever again. The client itself is an adware and you can’t even remove those ads in the latest version. How this ads are targetted? Maybe through your browsing history. Furthermore, the client is closed-source. You never know if they actually implemented a low CPU usage Bitcoin miner. If you are using an old version of µTorrent, do be aware of the severe security flaws.

Torrent

With that said, i recommend fellow pirates to use Qbittorent. It’s opensource, similar UI to µTorrent, lightweight and more!

Torrent Clients:

  • Qbittorent - Best lightweight, multiplatform torrent client, no ads and has built-in search function that browse popular public trackers

  • Tixati - Lightweight and extremely customisable

  • Transmission - Popular among macOS and Unix users

  • Deluge - Similar to Qbittorent, but no

Hydra What’s the use of torrent clients, if you don’t know where to search for torrents? The sites listed below are curated among the hundreds available in the internet. These are the very best public trackers.

Torrent Indexers/Site:

  • 1337x.to - The Rising Star

  • RARBG.to - RARBG are famously known to produce compressed BluRay rips

  • thepiratebay.org - Popular torrent indexer in the old days, nowadays, it has a lot of downtime

  • limetorrents.cc - Almost similar layout as Kickass.to

  • snowfl.com - A torrent aggregator site, therefore it does not host any files at all

  • CNBTkitty - A Chinese torrent search engine to find the good stuff

  • BTBit - Same as above

Well, those listed above at only the cream on top. There are thousands of hidden and locked treasures to be open, either with Time or Money. These are known as Private Trackers, which requires you to have an account. Do use Opentrackers to check if the websites are available for registration. Main requirement to be a member of a private tracker is usually to have a good DOWNLOAD:UPLOAD ratio.

Private Trackers:

  • CGPeers - GFX, Game assets

  • AudioNews - Anything related to Music Production from VSTs, Samples and Tutorials