Amnezia’s team has been receiving feedback from users regarding the limitations of VPN services when it comes to downloading torrents or accessing torrent sites. This issue is not rooted in technical failures or provider greed, but rather in the legal frameworks of the countries where we host our servers. Each time a torrent is downloaded or a site is visited, VPN services often receive abuse reports from hosting providers. After several such complaints, servers can be blocked, leading us, like other similar services, to impose restrictions on this type of traffic.
In this context, specialized B2B servers come to the rescue. These servers are more expensive than regular ones and are located in countries with more lenient laws regarding torrents. For instance, Amnezia has a dedicated location in Switzerland for this purpose. However, let’s delve deeper into the state of torrents in 2025 and the legality of their use across different nations.
Global Torrent Usage and Legal Frameworks
It’s important to note that the distribution of copyrighted content is prohibited in all major jurisdictions, meaning that officially sharing “pirate” torrents is not allowed anywhere. However, the severity of penalties for piracy varies significantly from one country to another. This article aims to explore the legal intricacies surrounding these issues.
According to MUSO’s research for 2024, there have been significant changes in the consumption of illegal content. The total number of visits to pirate sites in 2024 reached 216 billion. It’s crucial to highlight that these user figures are absolute values, not percentages of the total population in each country. The largest countries dominate these statistics primarily due to their larger populations. Below is a breakdown of visits to sites hosting pirated content:
- United States – 26.7 billion visits (≈12.3% of global pirate traffic)
- India – 17.6 billion (8.1%)
- Russia – 15.4 billion (7.1%)
- Indonesia – 12.1 billion (5.6%)
- Vietnam – 7.4 billion (3.4%)
- Turkey – 5.9 billion (2.7%)
- Canada – 5.8 billion
- United Kingdom – 5.8 billion
- France – 5.6 billion
- Ukraine – 5.4 billion
- China – 5.2 billion
Now, let’s examine these countries from a legal standpoint. It’s worth mentioning that in all the countries listed below, torrents can be used for legal content (open-source, public domain, or content permitted by the rights holder), and we do not consider these torrent distributions as piracy.
Switzerland: Switzerland is known for its lenient stance on torrents. Here, personal downloading (for personal use, not for distribution) from “illegal sources” is permitted, although uploading or sharing is prohibited. Authorities emphasize that making content publicly available (including through file-sharing networks) is also not allowed. Notably, Amnezia offers a Swiss P2P server as part of its Premium subscription.
Netherlands: Until 2014, the Netherlands allowed “personal copying”; however, following the CJEU ruling in the ACI Adam case, copying from illegal sources became prohibited, leading to a ban on downloading from such sources. Enforcement of these laws mainly occurs through blocking actions by rights holders.
Germany: In Germany, intentional copyright infringement can result in fines or imprisonment for up to three years, with commercial violations leading to sentences of up to five years. In practice, regular torrent users often face civil law actions (Abmahnung), receiving letters demanding fines and assurances not to infringe again. Most letters are sent to the IP address owner who shares or downloads torrents, indicating that while German laws are strict, enforcement typically results in fines rather than criminal charges.
France: France has recently intensified its efforts to block torrent resources. With the establishment of the new regulator ARCOM in 2022-2023, nearly 1,000 pirate sites have been blocked. The law prohibiting torrent sharing and downloading has been in effect for a long time, with penalties for habitual offenders including fines of up to ,500 and potential criminal charges, although imprisonment is rare.
Canada: Canada employs a Notice-and-Notice model, where rights holders send notifications to providers, who then inform subscribers. Typically, this process ends there, with rare instances leading to fines of CAD 5,000 (approximately €3,000). However, there has been a recent increase in the crackdown on pirate IPTV/streaming services.
India: In India, both sharing and downloading torrents are illegal. To protect films and broadcasts, Indian studios and channels frequently utilize “John Doe” orders, allowing courts to issue injunctions against “unknown infringers,” prompting providers to block torrents and streaming sites. High Courts sometimes issue orders before major film releases, resulting in the preemptive blocking of numerous sites.
United Kingdom: The UK has one of the strictest anti-piracy regimes. Rights holders or their legal representatives monitor torrent networks, collect IP addresses, and obtain subscriber information through court orders, subsequently demanding compensation or filing civil lawsuits. A notable case involved a user fined approximately £16,000 for sharing a game via P2P. While civil claims are common, the law also allows for prison sentences ranging from three to ten years for P2P piracy.
United States: The U.S. has stringent laws regarding pirated content, with real risks of civil lawsuits or threats from rights holders. However, criminal cases are generally reserved for large-scale operations rather than individual downloaders. Statutory damages can reach up to 0,000 per work in civil cases, although such instances are rare.
Singapore: Singapore law allows for criminal liability even for “primary” (not necessarily commercial) copyright infringement in serious cases, with penalties including fines up to S,000 per content unit and/or imprisonment for three to five years in severe cases.
Japan: In Japan, illegal downloading of music and videos can lead to criminal penalties, including up to two years in prison or fines up to two million yen. The same applies to downloading pirated manga and publications, with maximum penalties for uploading or sharing reaching ten years in prison and fines up to ten million yen.
Thailand: In Thailand, distributing pirated content is illegal. For non-commercial violations, fines range from 20,000 to 200,000 THB (approximately 0 to ,000), with no mandatory imprisonment. However, commercial violations can result in up to four years in prison and/or fines up to 800,000 THB.
Vietnam: Despite being one of the most pirated countries, Vietnam has laws against distributing and downloading copyrighted content. However, there have been few cases of punishment for torrent downloads, with the first criminal conviction for online copyright infringement occurring only in 2024.
Turkey: In Turkey, the situation with pirate sites mirrors that of the rest of the world. Downloading and sharing pirated content is prohibited for both individuals and businesses, but enforcement tends to focus on commercial piracy rather than individual users.
Portugal: In Portugal, as in the rest of the EU, downloading content from sources that violate copyright is prohibited. By 2025, thousands of domains with pirated content have been blocked, yet piracy levels per user remain approximately 33% higher than the European average.
Russia: In Russia, the legal landscape has evolved similarly to that of many other countries. Rights holders can pursue civil lawsuits for damages or compensation, with recent amendments discussing increases in maximum penalties for certain IP violations. While there is a focus on large pirate sites and commercial distribution, individual users downloading torrents are rarely pursued legally.
Interestingly, the cultural relic of the “Pirate Party of Russia” emerged during the early 2010s, advocating for digital rights and opposing censorship. Although it never gained official registration, it played a significant role in shaping public discourse around copyright laws and internet freedom.
In summary, while anti-piracy legislation is stringent in many countries, the enforcement of these laws often lacks rigor. Thus, the likelihood of facing legal repercussions for downloading torrents or viewing content on pirate sites remains low in most regions, with notable exceptions in Germany and Japan. The complexities of copyright protection are further complicated by territorial legal nuances, as rights holders must pursue claims in the jurisdictions where their rights are infringed, often limiting their ability to enforce protections effectively.