However, in the UK at least, the ISPs are required to log your activity and pass on to the relevant authorities if requested. Best to use an approved VPN to be sure.
I'd be curious how many account holders in the UK have actually been prosecuted for copyright infringement.
In nearly two decades with the same ISP (Telewest > Blueyonder > VirginMedia) I've had a grand total of two emails from them with no teeth in it, and still download what I want from public trackers to this day.
I get an actual letter from them? Yay, free toilet paper!
Same in France. It's legal to leech but illegal to seed. But it's easy for a beginner to get confused and seed without knowing, so we still do not advise torrenting to everyone
Why would it be illegal to use peer to peer technology, at all? I can understand making piracy illegal - I don't agree with it, but I understand - but making it illegal to torrent anything?