How illegal is downloading a torrent?

[IamODIN]

Say like i downloaded Photoshop and using it. 

will i go to jail in the US? and if yes. how long?

[Ashiella]

Just now, IamODIN said:

Say like i downloaded Photoshop and using it. 

will i go to jail? and if yes. how long?

No, they dont really do anything about it, they arent gonna arrest the 500k people who did.

[Zodiark1593]

I doubt many companies would jump through lots of hoops to sue an individual downloader, but if you stick a giant target on your back, kind of like what you're doing now, you may draw the attention of some intimidating-looking men in suits.

[minibois]

The police is on their way as we speak.

/s

 

You could be taken to court, but you're not that interesting of a target: unless you start spreading around the torrent.

But if you don't want to pay for your crap, just get free/open source crap.

[PlayStation 2]

Inherently, torrents aren't illegal.

It's what the torrent is told to download that can be illegal.

[bcredeur97]

likely not. possible? yes. 

 

they tend to go after businesses and such more than individuals. 

[TVwazhere]

 

[AshleyAshes]

1) It's not criminal, you can't be arrested for it

2) It is illegal, a violation of CIVIL law, you could be SUED FOR IT but for individual users it's not that likely.

3) If you use pirated creative software to produce creative works for profit then the copyright holder could also sue for money you made using their pirated software.  By purchasing software you also enter an agreement where the software developer has waved any rights to what you produce with their software.  You can actually find a number of stories of even large companies that had to pay through the nose because they got caught pirating software that they used to run their businesses.

[dalekphalm]

3 minutes ago, AshleyAshes said:

1) It's not criminal, you can't be arrested for it

2) It is illegal, a violation of CIVIL law, you could be SUED FOR IT but for individual users it's not that likely.

3) If you use pirated creative software to produce creative works for profit then the copyright holder could also sue for money you made using their pirated software.  By purchasing software you also enter an agreement where the software developer has waved any rights to what you produce with their software.  You can actually find a number of stories of even large companies that had to pay through the nose because they got caught pirating software that they used to run their businesses.

@IamODIN the short answer is if you "acquire" it to learn the software or do stuff as a hobby? Not really that big of a deal - though I don't advocate for pirating software.

 

But as soon as you want to earn money? You damn well better have a valid license.

 

Frankly, Photoshop is pretty affordable now as part of Creative Cloud monthly subscription - even more so if you are still a student, since there's additional discount for students.

[Orangeator]

Torrents are completely legal... It's the content that you are illegal obtaining that is the problem. But to answer your intended question, no. You won't get in any trouble. At all. As long as you aren't the source of the content, you are okay. Nobody will enforce laws on someone who downloaded Photoshop for free.

[ramencupofjoy]

Not at all, unless you're distributing them.

[Clockwork_princess]

The worst that will happen is Your ISP will see your torrenting and they will send you a notice to stop, and if you don’t they can stop providing you service.

 

i think it’s like 6 notices and then they cancel your service (for my ISP atleast) 

 

Mine only sent letters when I torrented tv shows. Never for games or software have I gotten a letter 

 

[BirdyTheMighty]

you will more likly to get a warning from your ISP if they are are tracking your history

[2FA]

You don't download a torrent, you torrent a torrent. Torrents are both downloads (leech) as well as uploads (seed) by default. It's the upload part that is illegal depending on the thing being torrented. US copyright law only mentions distributing material, it does not mention receiving copyrighted material.

[captain_to_fire]

It depends what you are downloaded via a torrent file. Many Linux distributions offer downloading the ISO file via torrent and that would be legal. However, downloading copyrighted content via torrenting (unless allowed by the studio) is not. 

[IamODIN]

3 hours ago, hey_yo_ said:

It depends what you are downloaded via a torrent file. Many Linux distributions offer downloading the ISO file via torrent and that would be legal. However, downloading copyrighted content via torrenting (unless allowed by the studio) is not. 

really? wow. so its almost like a hypocritical thing then

[captain_to_fire]

32 minutes ago, IamODIN said:

really? wow. so its almost like a hypocritical thing then

It’s not hypocritical. P2P/torrenting is just an alternative way to distribute files which is much convenient that direct downloads and since operating systems like Linux distros are big files, torrenting is very convenient especially for people with slower connections. However, torrenting is also being used for piracy which is why the pirate bay was shutdown years ago and the same fate happened to other torrenting sites. 

 

Back in early 2000s, music piracy via P2P is widespread. Anyone in their 20s probably remembers the programs Limewire, etc. 

But it has been shutdown since it’s a very good way of infecting PCs with viruses. 

[Misanthrope]

Just use Gimp. Yes it's clunky, hard to get, horrible GUI and quite lacking in feature parity. It still better for amateurs than giving money or notoriety to Adobe.

[SlipperyPete]

9 hours ago, Clockwork_princess said:

The worst that will happen is Your ISP will see your torrenting and they will send you a notice to stop, and if you don’t they can stop providing you service.

 

i think it’s like 6 notices and then they cancel your service (for my ISP atleast) 

 

Mine only sent letters when I torrented tv shows. Never for games or software have I gotten a letter 

 

to get around this you could always use a VPN

[LAwLz]

26 minutes ago, SlipperyPete said:

to get around this you could always use a VPN

Just don't pick a shitty one like Tunnelbear. A lot of VPns block all P2P traffic.

[onlybuilt4cubanxlinx]

I've never gotten a DMCA email from my ISP for software. Only music and movies.

[SlipperyPete]

19 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

Just don't pick a shitty one like Tunnelbear. A lot of VPns block all P2P traffic.

yeah i made that mistake lol. i bought a year of tunnelbear, figured out i couldnt torrent, emailed tunnel bear support and they refunded me

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

5 hours ago, hey_yo_ said:

It’s not hypocritical. P2P/torrenting is just an alternative way to distribute files which is much convenient that direct downloads and since operating systems like Linux distros are big files, torrenting is very convenient especially for people with slower connections. However, torrenting is also being used for piracy which is why the pirate bay was shutdown years ago and the same fate happened to other torrenting sites. 

 

Back in early 2000s, music piracy via P2P is widespread. Anyone in their 20s probably remembers the programs Limewire, etc. 

 

But it has been shutdown since it’s a very good way of infecting PCs with viruses. 

From what I remember, Limewire wasn't shut down because it was notorious for spreading viruses. Rather, it  was shut down to do the widespread piracy it brought upon. Much the same way Megaupload was taken down in 2012.

 

21 hours ago, IamODIN said:

Say like i downloaded Photoshop and using it. 

will i go to jail in the US? and if yes. how long?

If Adobe finds out and decide to press charges, you can be fined and potentially jailed. That being said, at this point there hasn't really been a company that has targeted end-users on a large scale for piracy. They mostly target the distributors of the pirated content and heaven forbid, other companies that use this pirated software.

[Sauron]

Let's first establish that downloading torrents in general is not illegal - downloading paid software for free is.

 

As for what could happen to you, you could definitely be fined and possibly go to jail if you do it a lot.

7 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

it  was shut down to do the widespread piracy it brought upon. Much the same way Megaupload was taken down in 2012.

Of course, it's all nonsense - in fact, megaupload was taken down 100% illegally, but the FBI is above the law apparently.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

6 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Let's first establish that downloading torrents in general is not illegal - downloading paid software for free is.

 

As for what could happen to you, you could definitely be fined and possibly go to jail if you do it a lot.

Of course, it's all nonsense - in fact, megaupload was taken down 100% illegally, but the FBI is above the law apparently.

When large sums of money is in the equation, anything and anyone can be above the law. That's how our world works sadly.