What is the penalty for downloading torrents

Each country has its own copyright law or code, and while almost all prohibit movie downloads, the penalties countries assess can vary tremendously. The penalties for illegal movie downloads are usually a factor of national law, degree of offense, and judicial discretion.

The United States is widely recognized as having one of the toughest stances against Internet piracy and unauthorized movie downloads. Statutory damages are damages that are set by statute, and awarded at the discretion of the judge. They are awarded according to a sliding scale, with a substantial minimum fine per violation.

An actual damage award represents the damages that an aggrieved copyright owner actually sustained, which can be less or more than statutory damages, depending on the facts of the case. These terms play a key role in defining the punishments and fines for illegal downloading. Private and public entities, alike, enforce illegal downloading laws. Additionally, federal and state governments follow their own mechanisms to punish those who download songs illegally or stream pirated movies.

See the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. In most cases, when a private group initiates civil charges against an offender, they offer them the opportunity to pay a settlement and conclude the case outside of court. However, if the judges get involved, they may charge defendants with a felony or other criminal offenses. Moreover, courts will assess the punishments and fines for illegal downloading acts. They break them down as follows:.

Illegal downloading laws and sentences will depend on why you downloaded copyrighted files and how often you did so. If you did it for personal reasons i. However, violators are still breaking illegal downloading laws.

In this case, the copyright holder may file civil, rather than criminal, charges. The federal government rarely prosecutes individuals who consume pirated content on a personal level. If they do, is piracy a felony in this case? The the courts may slap offenders with a misdemeanor, but not a felony. Those who distribute or share the content, on the other hand, are committing felonies. For example, if you download songs illegally or make pirated copies of videos to send them to a friend or family member, the legal system will consider that a distribution.

Instead, they target those who sell copyrighted content or make it available en-masse. Yet even if you stream movies or download songs illegally to share them with friends, you are guilty of a felony.

Above all else, when a private group, such as the RIAA, files civil charges against you, a court may add criminal violations and felony convictions to it. However, those who make money from copyright infringement face harsher penalties than those who distribute it without the intention of making a profit.

Because of this, the severity of a violation depends on how many records were used. For example, someone downloads ten songs and shares them with three of their friends via email. Courts will treat violators who previously broke illegal downloading laws more unfavorably than first-time offenders, even more so if they make a profit.

More specifically, the new rule punishes thieves with misdemeanors. The Michigan law also levies felony charges for repeat offenders and sentences them to up to five years in prison or jail. In Massachusetts , illegal downloading laws depend on how many files you install.

Others, meanwhile, may have stricter or lighter punishments that apply to specific acts, as is the case in Michigan. Is piracy a felony under state laws? That has a lot to do with where you live, especially if the state government is also filing charges against you. Because of this, felons must consult with an attorney who thoroughly understands local and federal piracy laws.

Your defense depends on whether you are currently facing charges or if you are a currently housed inmate.

T orrenting is a massively popular method to download the latest movies, TV series, music, books, games — you name it. All you need is a computer and an internet connection to download and share files! Normally, when you download a movie or video to your device, you press the download link and your computer connects to the server of the file for the download to start.

Torrenting works differently compared to this method of downloading files. Instead of downloading a file from one server, torrent software applications such as BitTorrent or uTorrent connect to a large number of other computers based on the principle of peer-to-peer P2P file sharing. Torrent software allows you to download small pieces of a file from every computer in the P2P network.

Before the existence of P2P torrent networks , copyrighted files were stored on a single server. Websites hosting copyrighted material on a server were easily traced by government institutions and shut down.

You are a leecher when you download a file, plain and simple. However, most torrent software disallows users to disable the upload limit entirely. In other words, you become a seeder. Note: The torrent software automatically enables uploading the file until you manually switch it off. The question applies to two different areas. First, is the actual process of torrenting safe for your computer in terms of malware?

To begin with, the process of torrenting is pretty safe. Before downloading a torrent, I recommend reading the comments and reviews from the community. Still, you should always be cautious when it comes to downloading torrents.

The act of torrenting itself is not illegal. For instance, you can easily get access to the U. Important notice: laws can change. This also goes for utilizing ways to get around geographic restrictions, in which case you should also make sure to read through any user agreements you are bound by and act in accordance with these. Some torrent websites even get taken down repeatedly, which results in large numbers of alternatives and mirror sites.

By setting up these blocks, authorities try to keep civilians from finding websites to download illegal content from. Not every country that gives fines for illegal downloading does so in the same way, or in the same amount. The sum of the fine can differ greatly depending on where you are.

In some countries, illegal downloading could even result in a prison sentence, depending on the severity of the crime. Not all illegal downloaders will end up paying the price for their actions. By sending out high fines to just a few individuals, authorities try to show how severe punishments can be. They hope to scare off other offenders this way. The actual consequences will differ per case.

The table below gives an indication of the possible consequences of illegally downloading in different countries. The laws and fines for illegal downloading can be confusing. The fact that users can be potentially liable for even seemingly innocent mistakes can make many people uncomfortable with downloads of any kind.

As the information age is still rather young, the laws to govern it are still being written and may not be a good representation of justice in every case. It is best to read the terms of service for websites and software. And take special care to avoid downloads of questionable legality. Download Fines and Legislation. By: Tove Marks Reading time: 10 minutes Update: