‘Some of the shows being memory-holed were hits; Summer Camp Island had 100 episodes and tons of fans! Others were about to premiere new seasons, which now no one will ever see. Creators spent YEARS pouring themselves into these projects; most weren’t even told this was happening.’
(Source.)
‘This picture of our crew represents 37 teams of artists who found out online that their shows were being stripped from HBO MAX and for some, episodes we worked on for two years during a pandemic would never be released. @discoveryplus has no respect for artists’
In related news:
HBO Max is expected to layoff around 70% of their development staff
And interestingly:
On Linux Mint the default client is Transmission. It works well. It’s clean, fast and free and open source software (FOSS). For a VPN I use PIA, private internet access. I’ve never had any complaints with it. Its well integrated with everything and easy to use. Since I’ve been using them for a while I stick with them. But there are probably cheaper or free alternatives to look into.
If you you get caught tormenting they’ll send you a warning letter. If they catch you a few times they’ll put you in a walled garden until you apologize. It’s low risk.
As far as websites go, piratebay is still a go to. 1337X and YTS are also good for media files. They’ve got a much more appealing layout. I’ve never accidentally downloaded malware. All of the sites have icons showing if the files are uploaded by trusted users.
The biggest risk is probably from using an untrustworthy client. Stick with FOSS. Like I said transmission works well. Make sure that the client and vpn are set to keep the PC from going to sleep while in use and the VPN will remain active or kill connectivity upon failure.
Good luck.