Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California

The movie studios don't appreciate your downloading their copyrighted movie, but that's not your real problem. Your real problem is that when you use peer-to-peer networking software such as BitTorrent to download their movie, you are simultaneously uploading the movie to the whole world, and because you are -distributing- their movie, the studio will be out for blood. Expect a letter demanding several thousands of dollars to settle the case.

Many companies are taking a hard line position on such piracy copyright violations and are suing people in federal court. I've seen similar cases where they demand substantial penalty payment to settle the case [to make a point], and I've seen people go to trial and lose 'big time' judgments against them when they didn't take the risks seriously. That usually happens where the people committed numerous violations, not merely a one time download. If you end up needing legal counsel, and are in SoCal, feel free to contact me.