What makes torrents special is that all leechers CAN be seeders, that don't have to be though.
The distribution technology is really interesting but certainly not censorship proof.
Are you sure about that. The downloader is the one making the copy. The uploader is merely inducing the creation of said copy.
Yes, it's easier/more efficient to go after the uploader, but that doesn't immunize the downloader.
> Don't forget that the admins can be in different countries, making their legal pursuit a nightmare.
The US govt does multi-country activity all the time.
This all ends once you start uploading it, tho. You cant upload it, period. Problem with torrents is theres no checkbox to signal "stricly no upload", you can only set limit to few kb/s to minimize this issue, but technically even few bits can still get you prosecuted.
(edit: following is wrong, perhaps germany is same as Czech, see child comment) In Germany, its a different story. You cant even donwload, not by torrent or even from sites. I know of people receiving fines in their mailboxes with IP/Date/Site/Material list and finig each piece by ~200€.
Source: was caught and got council from a copyright lawyer.
This is not correct - you still make a copy and the copyright holder could still sue you over it, but it's just not worth doing. It's not legal to do so, the Czech Republic is a signatory to the Berne Convention, it's just not a criminal offense. Which to be honest is the situation in virtually every country in the world.