i also wanted to post this comment to the same thread, but then i was banned
here in germany, people are only slowly figuring out, how to refuse paying the “TV tax” (GEZ-gebühr, rundfunkbeitrag). this tax is used to produce government propaganda in the official TV channels, and the official narrative is: if you have a TV, then you must pay the TV tax. when people refuse to pay, they can go to jail. but now there is the beitragsblocker.de service, where you pay some money to lawyers, who send some fancy letters, and then “poof!” you dont have to pay the TV tax any more
there is always some “avantgarde”, people who are ahead of their time, but usually, this is just a minority, and most people (“the normies”) are just stupid, useful idiots for the government
something similar would be nice for handling the “cease and desist requests” which are the only attack vector of the copyright trolls. plus, they give you only 2 weeks to respond, so most people are surprised and shocked, and have no time for proper research. so an “insurance” would have to be pro-active, and reach people before the trolls do
most people believe that these corporations have a right to demand “damage repair”, but this is wrong, because these trolls cannot prove any damage from filesharing
the trick is: they do have a legal right to demand a “cease and desist promise” where you promise “i will never upload that content again”, so they send you a form that they want you to sign. problem is, if you give your signature on this original form, then you also promise “i will pay 1000 euros for damage repair”. this payment is voluntary, they cannot enforce it in a court of law, but if you are “rich and stupid” and sign the original form, then you must pay, or they can take it by force
the cheap solution is to send a “modified form” (german: modifizierte unterlassungserklärung), where you only promise to never upload that content again, and nothing more. see also abmahnwahn-dreipage.de - i did this in about 20 cases, but since 2 years, i have been completely ignoring these letters. the trolls want money, and if you dont pa, they move on to “easy prey”
btw, also VPN is overrated, a waste of money. in germany, im seeding 300 torrents at 90% of my uplink with 100% uptime, and all i get are some “cease and desist requests” now and then, which i just ignore. i had PIA VPN for 40 eur/year and they were throttling my upload to 20%… no thanks. but enough people are “better safe than sorry” and enough people have too much money, so they buy a VPN to feel safe, but they dont need it in the first place