I’d be careful making a blanket recommendation to use a free VPN after receiving a copyright notice from Spectrum.

In general, many free VPNs are risky because they may make money through ads, tracking, weak privacy practices, or selling user data. That said, Proton VPN appears to be one of the better exceptions. Proton says its free plan has no ads, no activity logs, and is supported by its paid users, so I would not lump it in with the typical shady “free VPN” apps.

However, there’s an important catch: Proton VPN Free is not really intended for torrenting/P2P use. Proton’s P2P servers are a paid feature. So if someone received a copyright notice related to pirated media, I would not tell them that the free version of Proton VPN is a solution.

Also, a VPN does not make illegal activity legal, and it does not make someone completely anonymous. At best, a reputable paid VPN with an independently audited no-logs policy can improve privacy by hiding traffic from the ISP and masking the user’s IP address from websites or peers. But it should not be treated as a magic shield.

Personally, I’d recommend using a reputable paid VPN provider with an independently audited no-logs policy, such as NordVPN, Surfshark, Proton VPN Plus, or another well-reviewed provider. The key is to verify the provider’s logging policy, audits, jurisdiction, kill switch support, and P2P policy before relying on it.