is it safe to download copyrighted things through torrents?

If you're in Canada, yes.

As the others have stated it depends on if your particular ISP monitors their traffic and has flag alerts to unusually long or large file downloads (keyed in on torrent traffic). If your ISP does utilize this feature then yes they can detect it and although they will most likely be unable to trace back to the point(s) of origin due to the nature of torrent transfers, they can successfully trace the point of destination quite easily. Your IP address is tagged onto every bit of content you either send or receive. Even if encrypted your IP address is plainly visible to your ISP and if you are the sole user of your computer it is just about as good as a fingerprint. Plus if confiscated all illegal content on your computer can be pulled off the HD no matter what delete method you use (except for the use of a powerful "fishing magnet").

You should review your ISP's policies concerning downloads of music and video content (usually in the EULA you clicked and agreed to when you first signed up as a subscriber). Both Charter and Comcast use monitoring on their users and I have had a couple of friends at ITT-Technical Institute get caught using torrent downloads. They usually issue a cease-and-desist notice for 1st offense as a warning.

If your ISP doesn't monitor torrent traffic, other ISP's can still catch you by gaining access to a torrent sites IP address list. Although there are ways to stay away from such sites as these that may give you up. Check out: http://decoding.wordpress.com/2007/05/24/how-to-bl... for more info on what you can do to accomplish this.

When all is said and done it is your choice whether to download illegally or not. However, in my experience those who do so usually do get caught sooner or later. This is part of the reason I, myself, no longer use torrent or other P2P downloading of copyrighted material. Just not worth the risk these days in getting caught.

Virus relatated problems while using torrents are minimal, legal issue will be there depending upon type of download you have requested, example, if you are downloading a movie which is being sold in market for some price and is copywrite protected, then it is illegal. If you are downloading freeware, then no harm.

Well it is illegal, but i know people who do it all the time, and they never get viruses or have gotten caught. Because if that was the case almost everybody would be locked up for downloading torrents ! =P

Hope this helps.

it is illegal to download any copy right material and if you get caught it will cost you dearly

Last month one 12 yr old girls parents got fined $12,000

If your ISP chooses to monitor their traffic then yes, they can see practically anything.

an advanced pc user would already know or know where to look for an answer to that question.