Piracy is so confusing these days

idkmybffjoeysteel [he/him]@hexbear.net to Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ@lemmy.dbzer0.com – 93 points –

It was so easy when I was growing up. I would just type my search into LimeWire and if it turned out to be weird porn I would delete it. Then we had The Pirate Bay, and I could go through reviews to see whether something was a virus or not. Now all public sites I am aware of are riddled with viruses, and I am warned that attempting to download any of them will result in me receiving threatening letters from copyrights holders in the post.

Here is what I have discovered today, trying to pirate things again:

  • The safest thing you can do is direct download from file share websites, but nobody says where these websites are.
  • If you want to torrent files, you need to subscribe to an exclusive private tracker. To get access to a private tracker, you need to get lucky, or you need to go through a painstaking process of levelling up over months and months of seeding torrents from semi-private trackers until you get to an actual good one that may or may not have the content you are looking for.
  • If you don't want to do this, you need to pay for a UseNet provider, then you need to register for a similarly exclusive UseNet index service, probably paid as well. There is no guarantee you will find what you are looking for on here either, and there is a chance that your download will fail.
  • Whether you are using torrents or UseNet, you need a service to help you find the content in the first place, for example Sonarr, Radarr or Lidarr. Something called Jackett also fits into this somehow and apparently links to whatever indexes you are using.
  • If you are torrenting, you then need a torrent client such as qBitTorrent to actually get the files.
  • If you are using UseNet, you need a UseNet downloader such as jdownloader.
  • Alternatively, for either option you can pay for a Debrid service such as Real-Debrid or Premiumize to download the files for you, if you send them the links. Besides protecting your privacy and your bandwidth, these services are also great for bypassing the limits on the elusive direct download sites nobody can tell me any more about.

I don't really think of myself as a stupid person but this shit is so confusing. It is harder than paying for drugs on the dark web with illegal crypto currency. Am I nearly there? Is this everything? If I pay for a UseNet provider and somehow register for a UseNet index, is it as simple as connecting the two together to something such as Sonarr to find the content and jdownloader to get it?

I just wanna have my own home streaming service.

108

It's better than having some streaming service delete your show while your in the middle of watching it. It's also better than finding out you can only watch in SD because they don't approve of your CPU, GPU, monitor, operating system or web browser after paying for a subscription.

... or having episodes missing or original music removed/changed.

Just subscribe to Netflix and Disney+ and Hulu and Prime and HBO and yada yada yada to get a season each of the show your watch.

Fucking what were they thinking xD

They were thinking the same thing the same thing the cable execs were thinking.

“If they have to buy both our service and others, then other service are not my competition.”

”We’re going to rape these motherfuckers”

Or changes to rent status after taking a break and coming back the next day

  • If you want to torrent files, you need to subscribe to an exclusive private tracker. To get access to a private tracker, you need to get lucky, or you need to go through a painstaking process of levelling up over months and months of seeding torrents from semi-private trackers until you get to an actual good one that may or may not have the content you are looking for.

Uh, no. Tpb, rutracker, nyaa... Work well. If you want more curated stuff then yes, private trackers might be worth it, but you can still find a ton of things on public trackers.

  • Whether you are using torrents or UseNet, you need a service to help you find the content in the first place, for example Sonarr, Radarr or Lidarr. Something called Jackett also fits into this somehow and apparently links to whatever indexes you are using.

No. You can just search in one of the trackers and add the torrent to your download client.

  • If you are torrenting, you then need a torrent client such as qBitTorrent to actually get the files.

Yes, obviously. If you want to ddl you'll likely need a web browser, too.

I just wanna have my own home streaming service.

If you don want to automate it then just search for stuff manually and move your downloaded media to your library folders like it has been done since forever.

My man might be wearing the ol rose-colored glasses when it comes to the Limewire "heyday" of piracy.

I remember many times accidentally infecting my computer with a virus through that thing. That repair process was a HUGE pain in the ass.

I was stoned one night looking for concert footage and instead I got a video of a woman getting her head blown off at close range. That shit FUCKED. ME. UP. for a hot minute.

Todays situation is better in my opinion.

Yeah.

Chechen war videos were not fun to get when you were looking for porn as a teenager.

I remember I was trying to find the video of an ad that was on TV (don't ask me why, I'm probably autistic). YouTube didn't exist yet. Instead, I downloaded a CSAM video - I was a child myself at the time, and that thing scared me and fucked me up.

Today it would never happen by using a torrent tracker, even a public one probably

Yeah no I agree using LimeWire as a kid was wild, it's just I stopped pirating when OG TPB got taken down and never really figured out how to get back into it.

Honestly nothing has changed since the OG tpb days, you can even still use tpb. BitTorrent should be replaced with qBitTorrent or something I think, I haven't exactly changed my client in years. You have more choices of VPNs now if you care about that I guess. Some of the other old good trackers are defunct, but I think Reddit still has an actively maintained wiki of good public trackers...

P2p is the way the web naturally flowed, protocols like bittorrent wore able to distribute content better than giant streaming companies without relying on giant infrastructure.

Now sharing is frowed upon, hosting your own server at home is frowed upon, the web used to be more made by users, now to do anything you need to go through a big company.

The difficulties you face on piracy is just a reflection of how capitalism is fucking the web.

My two cents, piracy is not necessarily more complicated than it ever was at its simplest, but the potential for enhanced automation and security is MUCH higher than it used to be. That's the complex part.

I'm one of the lucky private tracker people. If I wasn't in there, I'd go all in on Usenet.

The problem you describe is that there are a hundred working ways. Each path works but you have to find it and take it.

Imo, you can reduce the list to:

how to pirate movies as a beginner

  1. Setup vpn
  2. Install qbittorrent
  3. Visit a tracker like 1337x.to
  4. Download and enjoy

How to pirate movies as a pro

  1. Read about torrents
  2. Setup vpn
  3. Setup docker
  4. Setup prowlarr
  5. Setup gluetun
  6. setup qbittorrent
  7. Find a tracker, any tracker, and add it to prowlarr
  8. Search for something on prowlarr and be happy
  9. Add another tracker
  10. Setup radarr
  11. Setup jellyfin
  12. Setup nginx proxy manager traefik

What are gluetun and npm used for? I did a quick search but I don't really understand the purpose.

Gluetun ensures that the containers are properly connected to the vpn and that port forwarding is enabled which can be a pain in the ass.

Npm = nginxproxymanager, it forwards external requests to the right port where the containers are such that you can reach your jellyfin instance on your selfhosted/rented server

Yeah, npm might not be a great abbreviation for that. npm = node package manager, which is big in node.js and javascript.

For routing all traffic through the VPN, I use the systemd-resolved custom script

And that port forwards properly?

What do you mean properly?

My home server isn't remotely accessible if that's what you're asking.

But there are no DNS leaks and all my containers work fine.

(Forgive my ineptitude, I'm still new to advanced networking and home servers in general)

I see the difference is Gluetun is used to route some traffic through the VPN. I don't have a need for that, so I use the script to route all my traffic through the VPN.

Do you torrent? Torrenting needs open ports

Yeah I torrent, I haven't manually configured any ports though. IP is hidden according to iknowwhatyoudownloaded

In case you ecncounter difficulties to find peers then it's because of ports. You'll find more peers with open ports and port forwarding of a vpn. It's a bad limitation of the protocoll, imo. I2p may solve it when we switch to it (if we ever switch to it).

I've not had any issues to date, but good to know, thanks :)

How to pirate movies as a pro

No mention of Usenet

I moved to usenet, seted up a few good indexers and providers and the experience is 1000x better and easier than trying to get into any kind of private trackers.

You have to fill out an application form to get into a private tracker. Literally just a couple of sentences about your torrent experience, why you want to join, etc. You can copy paste that paragraph and send it to 10 trackers.

What did you write that you were not accepted?

I didn't bother applying, mostly because I don't look for contant stream of media, and the fact I would then need to managage my seed ratio.

Not interested in all that, plus I'm very limited on storage, and not can't upgrade it cause it's too expensive here either way.

Usenet is just better for my usecase.

It's not difficult to get into one.

And Seed ratio is only a problem for newbies without history.

Sounds like prejudices, tbo.

i don't have history either man. Every private tracker I tried applying to wanted atleast proof of good seed ration from 2 other private trackers also. Which I don't have I never tou hed private trackers before.

And either way I don't have disk space to keep torrent's around to build up the ratio. ( I have 100gb free for movies/tv shows ).

Torrent and Usenet are not exclusive.
Upside of torrent: No upfront cash to use.
No need to research backbones, pre paid accounts etc.

I never said they're exclusive; I use both in my workflow. The comment to which I replied made it seem like private trackers were the end-all though, which I took issue with.

I also think your upsides are a bit misleading. I wouldn't use torrents without a VPN (upfront cash), and the effort to learn how usenet works isn't any more daunting than the effort needed to get into good private trackers and keep up the ratios (e.g., tracking time/ratio based on tracker, working with hardlinks, etc.).

You can torrent effectively free. Never said that you should do it.
Usenet usage is paid from the 1st step.

You may skip step 1 (getting a VPN) if you live in a country that doesn't give a shit about piracy. Do your own research

docker

what benefit does a docker deliver? Isn't that just a way to isolate things as if it were running inside a mini-computer?

Pretty much. You can download images with everything bundled and ready to go (e.g., deploy a new container image instead of upgrading your Radarr version in place) and keep them separate (e.g., Torrent container goes through vpn but your media server doesn't, Radarr upgrade going south won't affect your Sonarr install, etc.)

You can use a compose file and have the same setting on any device. Similar to nix. It's like a recipe for an app. Instead of installing nextcloud step by step, you can just use docker. Same here.

Traefik is usually a better fit than Ngnix Proxy manager

I've always been curious about why people say that

Is there anything in particular?

In my experience its more flexible and super easy to set up. Sure, Nginx Proxy Manager is brain dead easy, but its pretty clunky if you want subdomains and the like. Traefik just works. I can route my local services and my external services through the same instance and it just goes. Its awesome.

Same for nginx proxy manager. I just read upon the differences and traefik is aware of containers and shall be easier to update. I may switch to it. Thx for bringing this up.

Nginx proxy manager is super easy (for me) but traefik might be the better recommendation. Both work.

You can set rules through docker compose.
e.g.: traefik.http.routers.traefik-public.rule: 'Host(dashboard.${DOMAIN_EXTERNAL})'
This makes it easy to setup again elsewhere without having to setup everything manually because it's (if setup correctly) ✨automagically✨

Really can't get the point of the post

I'm enjoying rutracker + tpb. Very easy, very fast, always find what I want

Maybe I've unknowingly downloaded a bunch of viruses but I just tied qbitTorrent to my vpn and downloaded tons of movies from 1337x, torrentgalaxy, or ocassionally from PirateBay if I found a good one. I've been fine, but maybe I'm actually not. Who knows?

Either way, no letters or Summons so I'm doing all right.

Yeah torrenting isn't really all that hard tbh. Near enough same method as me, always been okay thus far

1337x.to, qbittorrent, vpn if your isp cares. Dodi, fitgirl, johncena141 for games. For audio, video, books, just don't be dumb and open bee_movie.mp4.exe and you'll be fine.

just look at this: fmhy.net

The safest thing you can do is direct download from file share websites, but nobody says where these websites are.

Until some legal entity decides to raid the servers. Pray they do not keep logs of IPs. Though usually this may be (to some extent) a gray zone in some countries.

If you want to torrent files, you need to subscribe to an exclusive private tracker

I download anime almost exclusively from nyaa. SubsPlease, Erai-Raws and many others are borderline there within 2h from release.
Private trackers allow for even higher quality by applying a ruleset like only remuxes and maybe they only allow a certain bitrate to have it classify as a remux on their community.

. To get access to a private tracker, you need to get lucky, or you need to go through a painstaking process of levelling up over months and months of seeding torrents from semi-private trackers until you get to an actual good one that may or may not have the content you are looking for.

No need to level up. Some more exclusive trackers may (or may not) open their doors during an open signup. But this is like any exclusive club. Either you stay a "pleb" in the open field or work for acess to the hifher club. Don't imagine for a second you could just enter the exclusive area in a high roller casino without a few hundred 10k chips. :p

If you don't want to do this, you need to pay for a UseNet provider, then you need to register for a similarly exclusive UseNet index service, probably paid as well. There is no guarantee you will find what you are looking for on here either, and there is a chance that your download will fail.

Usenet was always paid in the recent years.
Paying an indexing service is not mandatory. I am signed up to 4 services in the free tier just fine.
That you will not find stuff there is just as likely there, in P2Pworld as in the open web DDL or the privately shared lists world.

Whether you are using torrents or UseNet, you need a service to help you find the content in the first place, for example Sonarr, Radarr or Lidarr. Something called Jackett also fits into this somehow and apparently links to whatever indexes you are using.

What?
You can search the sites just fine on their own search engine. The *arrs and jacket/prowlarr are just unifying the searching into one engine and the *arrs parse and categorize your searches to help you find the stuff you want.
As I said: You can either search TPB manually just fine, oooooor you plonk it into prowlarr and have it synced to your *arrs.

  • If you are torrenting, you then need a torrent client such as qBitTorrent to actually get the files.
  • If you are using UseNet, you need a UseNet downloader such as jdownloader.

To browse the web, you need a web browser?
To use a computer you need a storage drive?
To use anything you need electricity.
So what's your point??

Alternatively, for either option you can pay for a Debrid service such as Real-Debrid or Premiumize to download the files for you, if you send them the links. Besides protecting your privacy and your bandwidth, these services are also great for bypassing the limits on the elusive direct download sites nobody can tell me any more about.

Any user logged to an exclusive community and uploading to something like those services are borderline stupid. lmao!
And they probably risk their account from being banned pretty quickly for breaking seeding rules They may function like a remote qbittorrent with a nice streaming interface. You basically pay someone to give you a pretty interface. Same as a seedbox, but you have no power over what you can/can not do :p

but this shit is so confusing. It is harder than paying for drugs on the dark web with illegal crypto currency.

Absolutely not. You just may be having issues understanding the material. Nothing wrong with that though.
I am still having problems understanding some concepts of for example VLANs, (v)SANs and software defined storage.

I just wanna have my own home streaming service.

Easy:

  • Download and install Jellyfin (or Plex if you want to get shafted. Just donate the same amount to the Jellyfin team).
  • Organizing: Download and install sonarr (tv)/radarr (movies)
  • Torrent: Either wait for access to TL during an upcoming holiday like easter and monitor communication channels or watch opensignup websites.
  • Usenet: Sub to a few closed communities. Same as the torrent way.
  • Downloading: For torrent: qbit, for usenet: sabnzbd.
  • Indexing: Prowlarr as the all-in-one solutiom.
  • Download: Either search prowlarr through it's own interface or through sonarr/radarr ooooor just download all yourself from some DDL page or rip from other (pirate) streaming sites via plugins and organize it via the *arrs.

What? You can search the sites just fine on their own search engine. The *arrs and jacket/prowlarr are just unifying the searching into one engine and the *arrs parse and categorize your searches to help you find the stuff you want.

I've been trying to understand this stuff without seeing any of it possum-party

Thanks for the help, this answers pretty much everything I was confused about

Until some legal entity decides to raid the servers. Pray they do not keep logs of IPs. Though usually this may be (to some extent) a gray zone in some countries.

Can you give an example? I don't think accessing a file somebody makes available has ever been an issue with copyright prosecution. They go after uploaders and hosts.

Even if they did, an IP in a server log isn't definitive proof of an individual accessing something. However, I'm less confident of worldwide legal systems understanding that. Still, I'd be curious if there's a single example of somebody being charged over accessing publicly accessible copyrighted files on the web.

I have a few torrentleech invites, any hexbear users can hit me up with a dm for one.

Second torrentleech. It's free, you just need an invite and you have to follow their rules (but that's valid on any private tracker)

Don't need invites. The tracker consiytently opens every major holidays (now upcoming: Easter). And if not, they open usually during Summer or Black Friday/Week and Christmas.

Oh man.

Stremio + torrentio plugin + real debrid subscription.

I used Usenet and then torrents for 20 years or so but this stremio stack allowed me to get rid of all that *arr crap, also VPN, and private trackers et cetera. Not to mention a hot, power hungry home server.

Others will be along to disagree with me any moment, but for me this stack is infinitely better.

Downloading and storing stuff doesn't make any sense in the era of unlimited data.

Someone has to seed though. I don’t know much about seedboxes but it seems like a seed box + plex combo is a solid way to go.

The home server route is way more complicated than rd+stremio for sure, but is still necessary in some contexts. I keep one just for kids content bc there’s no way to separate it out using stremio that I’ve found so far. It’s a bit of a pain to set up but with docker it’s not so bad. Stremio + rd for everything else.

Anything is better than watching fucking ads

docker

why use a docker at all? What is the potential benefit?

Docker silos your apps into VMs called containers so if it malfunctions, the entire server doesn't need to reboot only the docker container. You can also wall off select containers' network access through VPNs and allow others through. Seems to work a bit better than split tunneling for me

Feels like you're describing growing out of p2p

I used to download stuff from XDCC bots on IRC. That was even weirder than Usenet, you'd send the bot a specific chat command for it to serve you a file.

I feel like 'my own home streaming service' is effectively what I have in comparison to those days.

It is a very difficult topic - I use slsk private trackers and now try to revive airdc++ my data set is around 60TB - it is pain in ass to manage -HDD's fail, you need to salvage the data, also buy a new bigger ones, ssd's also fail. Internet connection is limited, and the MASSIVE amount of data being produced these dayz... I also run I2P and IPFS nodes, TOR snowflake. And it is massive pain that alphatracker is down... also the rarbg loss. Please keep calm, everything will be fine, I have to mention that I live in a grey country - no need for vpn - that really helps.

We still have torrents, only thing thats new is option to set up *arr stack for next level torrenting. Piratebay is still working, torrents and/or usenet are way better with speeds we have today... I never liked LimeWire. Just use VPN my dude

For computer games there are a lot of respected repacker (DODI, FitGirl) and also sites for DDL (csrinru, IGG). I think it is a fairly easy time for piracy because of the ass service and rip off on every corner (EA, Ubisoft, Epic, Nintendo, Denuvo).

I still don't have a single clue of what Sonarr and Radarr actually are. And, man, I've searched it all over, nothing's ever clear

Sonarr and Radarr are just some apps that handle the searching, download queueing, and organizing for movies and shows respectively.

You can tell them what media you want and in what quality/file size. They then use another app (Jackett, Prowlarr) to search a list of your preferred websites. They analyze the results and pick a download that best fits your quality specifications. They then send those results to your download client and move/copy/link the finished downloads to your specified media directory. They also rename your downloaded media files according to a scheme that you can define to your liking. In this way your media library stays clean and organized.

Basically you set them up once and then whenever you want something you just add it to your library on either Sonarr or Radarr depending on if you want a movie or a show. The apps handle the rest of the process for you. Additionally, they will periodically search your list of websites for media you already have and can replace what you have with versions that better align with your quality preferences.

To make things even simpler for the end user (presumably you), you can also set up apps like Jellyseerr or Overseerr that act as a front end to Sonarr and Radarr. You can search in a quick and convenient way for the media you want, and these front end apps will add them the appropriate Sonarr or Radarr library. Coupled with a media server like Jellyfin, the pirate's workflow essentially becomes this: 1) navigate to your request page, 2) select what you want to watch, 3) wait for it to appear on your media server, 4) watch it.

Edit: fixed a subject-verb agreement problem.

What's the advantage of downloading these over setting up the qbittorrent search function to search multiple torrent sites when I type something in there, as it does for me now?

I've never used the qBittorrent search function so if everything mentioned in my earlier comment is included in qBittorrent directly, then I don't know. Use what works best for you. As I understand it, the main appeal of the *arr stack is that it does everything automatically and without you having to intervene to get what you want.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I imagine that qBittorrent doesn't automatically search for better versions of your media, automatically rename and move files to your specification, automatically evaluate search results to choose a download that matches your desired quality, automatically search for desired media when it is released (like new episodes of a currently running TV show), automatically import subtitle files or extras to your library, or automatically grab metadata for all your media.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I imagine that qBittorrent doesn't automatically search for better versions of your media, automatically rename and move files to your specification, automatically evaluate search results to choose a download that matches your desired quality, automatically search for desired media when it is released (like new episodes of a currently running TV show), automatically import subtitle files or extras to your library, or automatically grab metadata for all your media.

Those parts do sound pretty good lol

They allow you to search for files of a specific size range and resolution automatically based on profiles that you configure during the setup process. Once configured, you just tell them what movie or show you want and they take care of everything else. 15 minutes later (or however long it takes to download) the files will appear in your library ready to watch. Also, for stuff that hasn't been released yet, it will monitor those and download them automatically once someone uploads a copy.

you don't need to search anything. that's the difference. you add a TV show and it downloads every new episode according to your specifications as they come out. for movies automated downloads are less relevant but it rename, organizes, adds metadata etc. also you can add a movie before it is released and it will download the movie when to becomes available.

So, automated search, download, rename, organize etc. Not necessary at all. Just a convenience for those who like that sort of thing.

Ohhh okay! That party sounds pretty good actually. There are a couple episodes of some TV shows I'd love to have that I'm missing lol

You add a desired show/movie and it searches selected trackers and downloads the torrent(s) through a configured torrent client. Not hard to understand really.

I just download from whatever site's available on the megathread..

Am I the only one that still just uses a VPN with Pirate Bay and Magnetdl? I only download videos and music, no games, and I'm finding 98%of what I want in the resolution I want. Is it really worth setting up the rest of it?

1337x usually has whatever I need. Although I mostly just pirate games and the occasional movie or series. I don’t have fuck you money to run a data center in my garage

I found TheRarbg to have better results compared to 1337.
And often 1337 is not accessible.. probably because of cloudflare

Everything else just makes it easier to manage which depending on your preferences and how much content you're dealing with that may not be a problem for you. I run the whole stack using Deluge as my downloader with a VPN. Radarr, Sonarr, and Lidarr automatically locate the torrents on the public tracker sites for me, send the downloads to Deluge, and imports the media into Jellyfin when the download finishes. I also use Jellyseer for discovering and requesting content, as well as allowing family members to request content. I also use Prowlarr to manage the trackers being used in the various arr apps. It's a very robust and automated system but it all boils down to just downloading torrents over a VPN.

Try stremio w/realdebrid and torrentio unless you want to self host this is the way

I already am self hosting everything. I have an 8TB drive over half full at the moment, and filling up fast now that I have a 4K TV. I also have an Openvpn server so that I can access my content when I'm away. I've had this setup since before torrents were even a thing.

Hold fire on that 4K business, if you haven't yet I recommend you do a test to see if you can actually tell the difference between Torrent 1080p & Torrent 4K. Out of my friends & family on a few can see a difference, but if they can they do say T4K looks better, but only slightly. So weigh up if the 2x or 3x larger file is worth the improvement.

Sorry if I sound aggressive or preach-y, just trying to save a fellow sailor some space on their ship is all.

It's only select movies that I'm getting in 4K, and any Star Trek that comes out in 4K or maybe the Star Wars 4K77 fan edit that was just released. But even then, they add up fast. I can barely tell the difference, but for some stuff I just want the best available.

Edit: I also did this when 720p VS 1080p was a thing. For a vast majority of stuff, 720p is fine and I'm not going to update that stuff. Most stuff released today isn't even available or 720p anymore, so I've defaulted to 1080p for most new stuff.

illegal crypto currency

I am pretty sure I am not allowed to own Monero as I had to jump through a LOT of hoops to get it

Edit:

Apparently it is not, I just wasn't allowed to buy it easily because of reasons

I think HDEncode and ReleaseBB are among the best DDL websites, though there's other options listed on the FMHY and Megathread lists. To make practical use of them though, you either need an expensive Rapidgator subscription or a more affordable debrid subscription (i.e. RealDebrid). If you use RealDebrid or AllDebrid, one method of finding releases is using Debrid Media Manager, which searches for cached releases that other users have already submitted to the debrid service you're subscribed to. As debrid downloads, in my experience at least, are often corrupted (resulting in errors either when extracting files from an archive or re-encoding a video in MKVToolNix), the best use of debrid services is to use it with an app like Stremio to have an all-in-one streaming service.

The other paid solution is usenet, which requires a NZB download program (i.e. NZBGet), a usenet indexer, and a usenet provider. The latter two usually require yearly subscriptions, but often have better results than can be found on DDL sites or public torrent trackers. While some usenet indexers are private, there are enough that are not to make waiting for open signups for those indexers optional. The public ones include altHUB, Miatrix, and NZB Finder, the private ones include DrunkenSlug and Tabula Rasa, while NZBGeek is public but is only free during a limited trial period, after which a subscription is needed. The free ones usually have a 5 downloads per day limit without a subscription. Note that Jdownloader is not a NZB download program, but rather one for regular downloads, and would instead be used for DDL site downloads.

For torrenting you need access to torrent trackers and a torrent download program. qBittorrent can do both if you add the Jackett plugin to it, though the best seeded (available for download) releases are often on semi-private and private torrent trackers. The best semi-private to start out with is TorrentLeech, given its lax seeding requirements compared to other private trackers. Keeping releases seeded on TorrentLeech gives you points over time that you can use to boost your ratio.

While I'd recommend using a paid VPN if you choose to go the route of torrenting, it's not essential if you instead use debrid and/or usenet subscriptions as in those cases you're not re-uploading downloaded releases to other users. If you'd rather not pay for any services, I'd recommend just using a site like MovieWeb to stream releases compiled from free streaming websites. While the quality is not always as good as can be had with the three options above, it works well for most use cases.

This is incredibly helpful, thank you. I couldn't figure out exactly what Rapidgator was used for before, if it similar to Debrid and used to indirectly download files from other file sharing websites then that makes sense.

Rapidgator is a file hosting website often used by DDL sites. It makes money by slowing downloads down to a crawl unless you have a premium subscription, as well as only allowing one download at a time for free users. As this is problematic for downloading multiple movies at a time, let alone TV shows, debrid services serve as a middleman by downloading files from file hosts such as Rapidgator to their own servers and caching them for their own subscribers to download for a set amount of time.

Some of what you've listed isn't exactly confusing - they're just pirates who are gamifying piracy and in the honest pirating ways - that's disrespectful.

Direct downloading can be easy but also not easy. File sharing sites do adhere to requests from copyright holders or anyone filing complaints will get the content taken down in time. The biggest blow of this is Uloz where you could practically find anything on it and download, at the cost of spending time if you don't want to pay for speedy downloads.

But most of the time, direct downloading is a whack a mole game. Maybe people aren't telling others because they could be sharing outdated information, almost nobody can be sure whether the content will still be there. Furthermore, it is frustrating because you have to weed through so much bullshit like ads, redirect links and more just to get to a single working DDL link. I'd know, I've done this many times.