Sorry to reply to my own post, but I'm now wondering if they can sue you for just downloading from DDLs or USENET (without the uploading activity inherent to torrents,) couldn't they theoretically also sue users of youtube or other video sites for the playing of copyrighted material, which I imagine from a legal perspective is essentially the same as downloading it from a DDL?
I think the idea is that while downloading a copyrighted work is still illegal, uploading is distribution, which is one of the indicators of "willfulness" which exposes you to the high statutory limits.
Yea. If they were to sue you for downloading (but not uploading) they could have huge landmark cases for millions of dollars in damages. Because the current math goes like:
statutory damage limit = $150k
people we *think* you distributed to = 1 million people
damages = $150k * 1m = profit!
You would have a hard time convincing a judge that either: a) the copyright owner suffered millions in damages over a single download of a movie or b) that the person needs millions of dollars in damages to 'teach people a lesson.'
