Never torrent without 1)a VPN, one that 2)gives you a dedicated IP.

A VPN is great for most things, but not quite enough for torrenting.

This is because (everyone please correct me if wrong) torrenting is peer-to-peer which means that someone seeding to you can see your real isp-issued IP address. They can contact your ISP and whine about you.

If some copyright guardian sets up a honeypot, they could get your identity even if you use a VPN.

The solution is to use a VPN that gives out a substitute IP address they own (and therefore keep private) which then redirects traffic to you.

There may be better ones out there but I haven’t bothered looking ever since I signed up with privateinternetaccess and use their “Dedicated IP” setting.

1337x has started requiring you to sign up with your email address before you can download. Not today, FBI