Ask HN: Is it safe to download movies via BitTorrent in the USA?

The risk is nonzero, but it's hard to tell what level of risk you will find to be reasonable.

Data point: http://unitedtechguys.com/2011/06/10/50000-people-sued-for-d...

Anecdote: at least 1% of the people I went to college with were sent "piracy letters" by the school's ISP while attending school.

Edit: data point from Hn in the last hour: http://imgur.com/vsnmm

If you are asking this question, then probably no.

From practical point of view: if your interest in video entertainment is quite mainstream, then while being in US it's actually cheaper in all aspects to carry Netflix or other video rental subscription than download something protected by RIAA. If you have non-mainstream interest, then I'd think, the risk of being caught is lower, since chances are RIAA won't care about some obscure movies.

Statistically safe? Probably, it depends on the movie. Morally wrong? Yes. Harmful to the state of IP law in this country? Yes. If you're a developer who wants to get paid for what you do will I judge you as a hypocrite? Yes.

Will I make your decisions for you? No.

I would say it is certainly a legal concern to download movies via bittorrent. To avoid problems, I would suggest services that don't make you discoverable to 3rd parties, such as html downloads or even newsgroups or irc.

If I was in the US, I'd use a VPN like IPREDator. According to TF, more than 200000 people were sued since 2010 for movie sharing.

I wanted to know this. Also, how about streaming websites like stagevu.com ?