In the wake of being Digital India, the Indian government enacted strict copyright laws all over the country. According to last year’s amendment to the copyright infringement laws, the violation of this law could land any individual to jail for about three years with the fine up to Rs. 300,000 ($4,480).
In the name of piracy, the government stood with the other anti-torrent states like the US and UK and knowingly took away the right of Indians to use the internet with freedom. But poor Indian netizens are not left alone with this misery. Here we come to guide you on how to download torrents in India (also check out our comprehensive Torrent guide).
How Can You Download Torrents in India Safely?
There are three possible ways by which you can safely enter the world of the torrents and can download torrents in India.
Using VPN for Torrent
VPN or Virtual Private Network is the most reliable and safest way of circumventing internet censorship laws and download torrents in India (get the best VPN for Torrenting to avoid getting caught while downloading torrents in India). This cybersecurity tool works as a concrete shield that stands between you and the ISP to protect your online anonymity. The VPN be operative by tweaking your real IP address with a fake virtual IP address chosen by you. This IP address would be from the list of server locations across the world offered by your VPN provider.
When choosing the server location in order to access torrent websites, you must choose those server locations where the torrent is not banned like Netherland. This will fool the website server because your IP will be masked with some torrent-friendly IP and you will be given the access to download torrents in India. Besides this, a VPN encrypts the internet connection with the high grade of end-to-end encryption that will not even allow your ISP to snoop through your IP.
Using Tor
Tor or The Onion Routing is an open-source and free of cost method of being anonymous over the internet by hiding your IP address with the help of onion routing technology. Tor functions mainly on the various blind proxy relay servers and also added multiple layers of encryption in an effort to conceal your IP address and make you complete anonymous over the internet. Tor seems a pretty much good way to bypass the internet censorship laws in India and let you download torrents in India. Tor tends to send all your data traffic through a web of proxy servers and layers of encryption. This makes everyone including your ISP incapable of tracking your IP address. The only drawback of this open-source program is its sluggish speed. (See VPN vs Tor)
Using Proxy
Using a proxy is a free way of accessing the blocked website in India. The proxy server fetches the blocked website in its own webpage where you can access it. But not all proxies apply encryption to make you anonymous from ISP. However, it is not safe to use the proxy to download torrents in India as the level of encryption is not as strong as a VPN or Tor. (see the comparison between VPN vs Proxy)
What Is Torrent?
Well, Torrent is not something that’s hard to grasp and I’m sure many of you must be already acquainted with this term. If not then let me tell you BitTorrent is a method of sharing and downloading a large amount of files like movies, TV programs, etc. by using the peer-to-peer protocol of BitTorrent for free. This technology since its beginning has gained so much popularity because of its affinity in free and safe downloading techniques. BitTorrent enables the torrenters to download and share all kinds of files with a lightning speed that makes it loved by the torrenters across the world. But sadly like other countries of the world, the Indian government hates people to download torrents in India.
Why Is It Illegal In India?
The message that flashes on your screen when attempting to access any torrent website if your ISP is Tata Teleservices is as follows:
“Viewing, downloading, exhibiting or duplicating an illicit copy of the contents of this URL is punishable as an offence under the laws of India, including but not limited to under Sections 63, 63-A, 65 and 65-A of the Copyright Act, 1957 which prescribe imprisonment for 3 years and also fine of up to Rs. 3,00,000/-.“
This stated message of denying the access to download torrents in India pops the bubble of confusion that why torrenting is considered as a crime in India. The rationale behind this is torrent allows the users to download any type of file that may charge you if you try to get it from elsewhere. For example, before this technology, whenever new movie releases, people including the to be torrenters used to go to the Cinema and empty their pockets there.
And now people could easily get their hands on any latest movie rather than hit the Cinema and waste their money. This seems unprofitable to the filmmakers and other original content producers. To address their concerns, the government of a handful of countries enacted the copyright laws and copyright Infringement laws. Same happened with India, in a bid to eliminate piracy, the Indian government banned all the torrent websites in an effort to address the concerns of copyright holders and stopped people download torrents in India.
Law of Copyright Infringement In India
Before we begin with copyright infringement laws in India, I want to bring the term “Copyright” to light. “The right which a person acquires in a work which is the result of his intellectual labor is called copyright.” This powerful right vested in the copyright holder who can take the copyright infringer to the courts and court will then decide according to the laws of the state.
As far as Copyright Infringement laws in India is concerned, allow me to warn you that Indian has stricken the Copyright Infringement laws across the country to catch hold the infringers and took many of the leading ISPs on board in the wake of eliminating piracy from the country and stop the people download torrents in India.
Consequences If Caught
Here is an important question arises, how the torrenters can be caught while torrenting? Well, India is no more a state of internet freedom and online privacy. Whenever you visit any torrent website, your ISP could track you, and while downloading any torrent file, all the peers who are downloading the same file can see your IP. Hence, the copyright holder could also know, and your ISP can easily trace your location through your IP address. All the ISPs in India are required to pass such information to the concerned authorities for legal action against the crime. And the consequences could put you behind bars for three years along with the hefty amount of fine.
Choose VPN Wisely
The selection of VPN to download torrents in India does not come easy. Especially, you should never trust the free VPN services as they are known for breaching your online privacy and passing your data. Thus, for torrenting in India, you should never compromise on the quality of VPN just to save a few pennies. These few pennies will not save you from landing to the jail, but a good VPN can do it (check our good best cheap VPN services).
Steps Of Downloading Torrent Via VPN
Setup VPN client in just a few easy steps:
- First, subscribe to the best VPN to download torrents in India.
- Download the desktop software of the VPN you subscribed to.
- Provide login credentials.
- Get the ball rolling by choosing the server location which is torrent-friendly.
The VPN will then automatically gives you a torrent-friendly IP address and encrypts your data traffic.
What Should the Best VPN for Torrents Have?
1. Privacy Policy: You must make sure the best you chose to download torrents in India must not keep logs of your online activity and have no policy of sharing it with any third party agency.
2. Support For Torrent: A good lot of VPNs do not support torrenting, and if you attempt to visit any torrent website, your account will be more likely to be canceled by the VPN provider.
3. Level Of Encryption: The best VPN to download torrents in India offers 256-bit plus military level of encryption to keep you safe and hidden while torrenting.
4. Limitless Bandwidth With High Speed: Speed throttling and torrenting do not work together. In order to download torrents in India, your VPN must not throttle the speed of your connection and does not limit the bandwidth (read more about testing VPN speed).
Conclusion
However, India is one of those countries where the rule of laws is not implemented much, and the writ of the government is also questionable. But why taking risks If you have the best solution to download torrents in India safely.
