It kind of does if you choose to seed stuff that is ripe for DMCA takedowns/copyright infringement, right?

That's not the protocol's fault, but it's pretty much one of the biggest reasons most common people use the protocol: to pirate.

Get caught pirating? Probably get some fines, right?

DMCA and most copyright holders would only hold power over ~4.25% of the population in the world, as the rest of us lives outside the US and are not impacted by US laws. Some countries like to pretend they actually handle DMCAs as well, but if you push back they won't even take it to court.

> Some countries like to pretend they actually handle DMCAs as well, but if you push back they won't even take it to court.

Sheesh, please do a more thorough research. It's technically not DMCA (because it's not called DMCA), but Germany and Japan do have similar laws analogous to DMCA, and I'm pretty sure that further digging would reveal more countries that have an analogous process written in law.

The DMCA was introduced in order to ratify the WICO Copyright Treaty[1]. Every signatory of the WIPO Copyright Treaty has similar laws on the books.

Though really you could argue that the Berne Convention already covers the most obvious copyright violations you get from torrents which means that effectively every country on Earth has laws against bare-faced copyright infringement. The WIPO Copyright Treaty is most notable for Article 11 which effectively prohibits the circumvention of technical measures (DRM).

It may be practically difficult to litigate someone in another country, but it has happened in the past[2].

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WIPO_Copyright_Treaty [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pirate_Bay_trial

There is a whole scene around people spending 50-100/m just around this. There is a lot of money to be made if you live in the "right" countries.