Originally Posted by chinski

Does anyone use these?

The only safe way to use them (and not get targeted by your ISP) is with a VPN/seedbox, correct?

Yeah. Since using a VPN I haven't received any notices from my ISP for downloading content from public trackers. But really, it's better/safer to use a private site if you can because you're more likely to download malware/virus/fakes from a public tracker.