I don’t live in the US, so my ISP doesn’t really seem to care what I torrent, but the megathread vehemently recommends to always use one. Since VPNs aren’t cheap and I’m on a strict budget (wouldn’t pirate otherwise), is it really that dangerous to torrent without one?
Yes, if you have a static IP address. If you have a dynamic IP address you can just be seeing the other people who previously had that IP address. It will depend on your ISP.