Is using torrent in India illegal? What punishment?
Shortly, yes if you are downloading commercial content.For example, say if you download google chrome via torrent, you are not doing anything illegal. I sometimes prefer torrents for downloading large free softwares because torrent apps are available for mobiles, and it has a much needed pause and resume functions.However, if you use torrents to download pirated softwares, movies or so called 'cracks', you can land yourself in serious trouble. And moreover, you are putting your computer too at risk because softwares can be bundled with other rogue softwares and your PC can get infected.And just remember the world is round, if you steal others hardwork, someday others will steal yours.Edit: Now, Government has official authority to arrest you for trying to even access Blocked torrent sites. Source - Are you a criminal now? Users may get 3 years in jail for viewing torrent site, blocked URL in IndiaThough the writing seems to be extremely stupid, because you can get jailed for accessing “blocked sites”, but the only thing you see in blocked site would be the ‘Warning’ of do-not-try-to-access-this-site and so you wont be able to access the sites content, and no stupid court would deny scrapping your case for just viewing a warning page.
Has anyone faced legal charges for downloading content via torrents in India?
I had the same scare when my service provider blocked my Internet suddenly after I had downloaded some questionable content from torrents. But, it turned out to be a coincidence. This got me wondering about the legal implications of downloading copyrighted content. Torrent is a peer to peer sharing forum and while your are downloading there is simultaneously content from your computer also being uploaded for other people to download. There is no legal implications of just using torrents. The same way how using napster is/was not a crime by itself but having the media content in your computer without paying the patent holder or reseller their due is a crime. This is the reason why the Millinieum Copyright Act blocks the torrent websites for hosting 'pirated' content even though they aren't the ones who have actually uploaded the content. It's akin to renting out space for gambling but not having any participation in the betting. Simply put using torrents cannot get you arrested but if you are caught with the copyrighted stuff that you have downloaded you could face criminal charges. In 2013, an IT professional was arrested by the mumbai police in Vikhroli for downloading copyrighted content via torrents and was to be booked under section 66 of the IT Act but was let go after a warning. This was a experiment in tracking peers done by the cyber cell network.