Don’t have to have a VPN. Just don’t download new stuff. Material over 5 years old is safe enough. One exception is the occasional artist who has gone copyright extremist, and wants their entire catalog monitored for piracy.

If you are caught, you’ll get a warning from your ISP. It’s largely toothless. After the 3rd warning, they’ll disconnect you from the Internet until you’ve clicked acknowledgment to a scary warning screen that piracy is very naughty and you could be in Big BIG Trouble if you keep doing it.

They’re asking the impossible. If they don’t get a fool who doesn’t really understand, they will get a liar who will string them along. Serve them right.

Tried to read an e-book from the local library. No problem downloading it, but the file was encrypted, and only an Adobe app that does not run on Linux could decrypt it. I used Wine in Linux to run the Windows version of this app, and it worked right up to the point of actually decrypting the file. Couldn’t read the e-book I’d checked out. So I pirated the book.

I went to some trouble to download and install Wine and the Adobe software, and I resent that. Tried to do things the legal way. Could’ve saved myself much bother by pirating first and skipping the public library. I also deleted the Adobe garbage.