The No Electronic Theft Act (NET Act), which targets users downloading protected content.Īmerican ISPs monitor and store user download data for months or even years.The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which is aimed at sites hosting illegal torrents and uploaders of copyrighted works.In the map below, you can see which countries enforce laws on torrenting copyrighted material, and which countries do not: *only some kinds of copyrighted material can be downloaded for personal use. You can use it to see which countries enforce laws on torrenting, and which do not: There is no law on downloading copyrighted materialĭownloading copyrighted material for personal use is allowedĭownloading copyrighted material is always illegal Here’s a table comparing torrenting and copyright laws in 23 countries around the world. Some countries allow torrenting copyrighted files for personal use, though. For example, in Somalia there are no copyright laws at all, whereas the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and most EU countries ban it outright. The laws on torrenting copyrighted material vary significantly across the world. However, if you’re downloading publicly-owned files from torrenting websites, you are not breaking the law. Countries that have signed these treaties agree to enforce each other’s copyright laws, and are more likely to pursue criminal charges.ĭepending on where you live, the consequences of being caught torrenting copyrighted files can vary from small fines to jail time. There are two major international treaties on copyright: the Berne Convention and the Universal Copyright Convention. If you download films, music or television files that are not in the public domain, there’s a good chance you could be breaking copyright laws. Unfortunately, most popular torrenting sites host and distribute copyrighted content. It is illegal to torrent copyrighted files in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and most states in the European Union. However, the contents of many torrent files breach copyright laws, which vary by country. There isn’t a single country where downloading torrents or using torrenting websites is illegal in itself. It’s just a form of peer-to-peer file sharing, and torrent files are simply a type of document used in the process.

Utorrent not downloading torrents