Will you get sued if you use Vuze?

Answer 1

Yes. Distributing copyrighted material on BitTorrent, uTorrent, Vuze or Frostwire is against United States Federal law. In the US, the copyright owner has the exclusive right to determine who may distribute their copyrighted material under US Federal law 17 USC 106.

17 USC § 106 - Exclusive rights in copyrighted works

Subject to sections 107 through 122, the owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following:

(1) to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords;

(2) to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work;

(3) to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;

Using "filesharing" software like BitTorrent, Vuze or Frostwire violates two elements of this law because it both copies and distributes files. If you record a song, or make a movie that you own and control, you can "share" it with BitTorrent, Vuze or Frostwire and there is no problem. You cannot "share" music and movies that you do not have the rights to share.

If you do so, you have opened yourself up to the threat of lawsuit. Two hundred thousand people have been sued for "sharing" copyrighted material on the internet without permission since 2010.