I'm slightly worried because I see a lot of stories about people getting hit with massive fines for downloading movies or music from torrent sites. I've got so much stuff I've downloaded, I'm wondering whether to be a bit more wary about it. I know downloading copywrited material is illegal but I figured there's so many people doing it so.. safety in numbers.

Also, if you're downloading in China does that make it safe? I doubt the authorities here would give a shit about people illegally downloading American movies. What about using a VPN? Does that make it harder to trace who is downloading what?

In the UK the only successful prosecutions have been for uploading on P2P.

I have never heard on anyone being prosecuted in China. I don't thing China would share that kind of data, who is doing what on the internet, with the US.

Many Chinese websites have movies that are still playing. For example:
007 Skyfall can be seen here: www.lele.tv

I download from torrents all the time with virtually no problem. I always have my VPN on and did get a warning once from the VPN provider. Apparently one of the torrents I downloaded had been placed by a US government agency to track people downloading. The internet provider (or in this case the VPN provider) can be forced to cut off your service since they can be held liable, however, the US government has not had any success in going after anybody actually in China.

I noticed there is some kind of "tracker" file for many torrents. You can unclick it (ie not download it). But not entirely sure what the file is exactly and what happens when you unclick it.

China no worries at all.

USA people commonly are sent lawsuits by ip lawyer trolls, threats of lawsuits passed to their isp which the isp passes on to you in addition to the isp threatening to now cut you off. Even VPN isn't a guarantee. I know someone who got a lawsuit passed on to them by their by the VPN provider (StrongVPN in this case).

My girlfriend told me this week that just after the congress finished a few big law changes came out including getting tough on the DVD copying. Plus an actual age limit on the purchase of alcohol - 18. I know that there is still a big gap between laws and enforcement of them, but its another nail in the slowly closing coffin for your local DVD copy shopy.

Downloading movies isn't a crime. It's "infringement", and at best a misdemeanor. Bootlegging and selling for money is probably considered a crime though.

Certainly if you live in he US you might have to worry about the FBI kicking down your door (government sponsored terrorism), but I don't think they can really do shit about it in China.

If I were to download torrents I would do it with the VPN turned off so there's no risk of losing service from the provider.

A 34 year old woman from Minnesota, usa was found guilty of downloading like 30 songs and sharing them on the internet. Her fine is over 2 million usd. She has appealed numerous times and has lost everytime. She received nothing for sharing songs. Was a website many people were using at the time and for some reason record industry chose her to pick on. Probably because she was an ordinary person in small town and wanted to show no one is safe.

The USA is officially a POLICE STATE. They want to control every aspect of people's life. Add this to the 101 reasons to live in China.