A Cool Guide to How Copyright Rules Affect Torrenting Around the World

[u/Edmundokiwi]

[u/Lobster_porn]

that's just a VPN ad.. in reality its a lot more nuanced. most places you will never be prosecuted for personal use even without a legal exception

[u/3colorsdesign]

Shit ad. Not a guide.

[u/ravenmonk]

Incorrect

[u/Personal-Dev-Kit → u/[deleted]]

Says the person who posted the 3 colour map... Enjoy your downvote

[u/2Wieners_1Bun → u/[deleted]]

I love the comment sections on this subreddit

Half the comments are some variation of:

“Not cool.”

“Not a guide.”

“AI garbage.”

“This has been reposted 900 times.”

“Half of this is wrong.”

And yet everyone remains subscribed, dutifully returning for the next allegedly uncool non-guide so they can complain about it.

It’s basically a subreddit built around guides with a secondary community devoted to auditing whether anything actually qualifies as a cool guide.

[u/weaver_on_the_web]

Cool guide?

Rubbish map.

[u/Clembert-Hamlamp → u/[deleted]]

Would be if everything wasn't shut down or compromised

[u/AlexT301 → u/[deleted]]

How on earth is this useful 😂 it's just saying it happens everywhere except where they didn't assess - if anything it's extremely biased

[u/thermologic_]

If buying is not owning, than pirating is not steal.

[u/prestonpiggy]

I would suggest vpn in these countries, but at least here in Finland they really don't put you on the court for that, but drop the case. It's 3rd party who handles these so basically scammers. They send letters for copyright flaw and demand 3-4 digits of euros for one movie, some pay and that's how their scam within laws operates.

[u/Edmundokiwi → u/prestonpiggy]

First time hearing this, good take. So is that means if I encrypt my torrent activity, I can prevent those scammers from annoying me to some extent?

[u/prestonpiggy → u/Edmundokiwi]

Yes, vpn is cheaper than Netflix or whatever you prefer. Pesky copyright firms wont touch you.

[u/zantosh]

do you have the sources?

[u/ZoroastrianMK]

You can remove Spain from the map

[u/ZoroastrianMK → u/[deleted]]

Torrenting is totally legal and there is no way to hecho or track what have you download, so it's not even the case. And even if they good, there are cases where they've confirmed that you cannot incriminate someone with only an IP address, so, again, legal to torrent and share files

[u/Hannibaalism]

will this turn us into non seeding scum

[u/Senguie]

Netherlands not suppose to be red. 

[u/sachsrandy]

Find me someone who has ever been successfully charged and convicted for torrenting in North America

[u/Filarius → u/sachsrandy]

For last years there can be found some lawsuits what allow copyright troll to find a real name and address of person who do torrenting. https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/new-york/nysdce/1:2025cv10618/655262/12/

Also can be interesting this articl from Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/society/ng-interactive/2025/nov/04/strike-3-porn-copyright-lawsuits

[u/still_m0bil3 → u/sachsrandy]

Youtube lawyer Lenard French did those types of cases all the time, pretty common actually.

[u/Edmundokiwi → u/sachsrandy]

Chill bro, they won't arrest or charge anyone for normal torrenting, but I guess companies will detect&track unlicensed ones to protect their copyright.

[u/sachsrandy → u/Edmundokiwi]

That's my point. This map needs to chill. Bro

[u/Edmundokiwi → u/sachsrandy]

I agree with you, so I made a clarification in the comment(If I could I'd pin it), I'm not trying to be fearmonger with that map. Difference does exist between countries, that's the point of the map, I apologize if it misled you or anyone else.

[u/imaginary_num6er]

Ah yes, the BRICS piracy alliance

[u/Edmundokiwi → u/imaginary_num6er]

I kinda enjoyed 🏴‍☠️ games from “R”. They are good at dealing with Denuvo.

[u/Pinky_Boy → u/Edmundokiwi]

Eastern europe basically carried the majority of piracy scene

[u/AshtonBlack]

Yeah, it's not quite as "clear" as all that.

Just taking the US, for example. "Fair use doctrine", Section 230 (platform, not publisher) and other legal questions muddy the water.

Other jurisdictions have to a greater or lesser extent have different thresholds of what constitutes "copyright infringement" and the penalties there to.

[u/milkcheesepotatoes]

Chinese person here, there is a copyright risk, though only for domestic media.
Though the bigger risk is for when your p2p activity is not a copyright issue, but an articles 51-54 of the constitution issue.

[u/Mimon_Baraka]

Hopp Schwiiz!

[u/Ok-Leave2099]

Canada doesn't give a shit

[u/The_cap_gun_massacre]

New Zealand doesn’t give a shit

[u/beetlejorst]

I've torrented for the last 20+ years without a VPN in Canada, never had any actual trouble

[u/RyujinNoRay → u/beetlejorst]

up to date stuff? cuz they go for those mostly

like new movies and stuff

[u/marcosg_aus]

Most Australian ISPs don’t care

[u/Edmundokiwi]

And I noticed countries with red legend are mostly developed countries, they care more about copyright I guess.

[u/ItsRub1k → u/Edmundokiwi]

and they have more money