can you run into legal problems for using it?

You mean, for downloading Bittorents in general?

I'm also curious about this. There are millions of people who do download torrents though, so I don't think there's a reason to be worried regardless. And technically, if anything the site was doing was illegal, it would have been shut down.

like tv shows and movies

Nothing illegal in downloading the torrent file. However, if you open the torrent file in a bittorrent client program and download copyrighted material, then yes, you could run into legal problems. But there are relatively few who are caught and taken to court for it, even though the RIAA and the MPAA are triggerhappy at times.

There's only been a handful of court cases that have had downloaders pay out. But comparing them to the about of p2p users, it's a water drop in the oceans.

If I buy a bike by the logic of the RIAA/MPAA I should never share my bike to let anybody else use. Because of my sharing my bike with another person it hurts the bike makers' sales and makes me a commie facist for sharing.

Exactly.

I look at it this way too:

I remember when we used to record stuff from the radio onto cassettes and 8-tracks,and we would share our tapes with others and let them copy what they wanted.Why didn't the RIAA go after us back then?

copyright laws are very complicated or can be i know a little about them as i dj and im planning to move profesional soon maybe.
copyright laws from my point of veiw if i pay money for a vinyl or cd im permitted to play it at events but would have to pay each time if i say played in on a radio station. also if all these copyright laws are about why do they release cd re writers, dvd re writers and now blu ray re writers to the public. You can even buy digital tv boxes with built in hard drives to record all your favourite tv shows so is that illegal to do that? Is it illegal to copy a song off the radio onto a cd using a cd recorder or vinyl recorder (if you can afford a vinyl cutter) I agree with wolf maccanine we used to do it with tapes and no one was bothered back then so whats the difference now we have different formats? i saw on tv once how holland veiws there laws on drugs or it was a programme.
A police officer on there said you can tell people what to do but you cant stop them without completely taking away their privacy. and i agree with that

I know with some items,you are allowed by the copyright to make one extra copy of something for yourself (as a just in case the original fails,or you'd rather use the copy so as to keep the original in good condition),yet you cannot use it in any public performance (although having a few friends over to watch a movie or listen to a new CD should be ok),and you cannot charge for the viewing or listening.

When the VCR came out,there was a bit of a stink made then,because it would be easy for people to copy stuff off the TV.They figured that people would record the shows and then turn around and make more copies that they could sell.So...what did they do? They started having all of the channels put a little identifier in a corner of the screen which when taped,would show that it was copied from TV.It probably stopped some people from trying to sell copies...but it didn't do anything to those of us who wanted to copy a friend's tape so that we could have a copy for ourselves.

My questions to the RIAA would be this:

If I already own a physical copy (say,a cassette) of an artist's album,why can I not download a digital copy of it from someone else who has a digital copy of it...especially if/when I do not have the ability to copy it from a stereo onto the computer (that I can then put on a portable player such as an iPod)? After all,I paid good money for the physical copy that I already own...why should I have to pay again to get a digital copy?

Along the same lines: When I lived in the U.S. I had purchased in excess of $20,000 worth (I left the U.S. when I was 38 - think about the volume of stuff I and my parents had purchased during my years of growth) of records, cd's, videos, not to mention movie tickets, etc. I left all of that stuff behind. To what extent am I beholden to re-purchase all of my music, software, and videos? How many times should I give the producers compensation for things I had already purchased.
Also, there are many Western expatriates in the world with limited access and limited funds to review the news and media of the West. Many of these expatriates (me included) are out here in the world trying to teach values incorporating the best of the West while attempting to merge these ideals with "the best of the East." Cannot the Western producers cut a little slack in the interest of human awareness? Don't get me wrong, I'm a die hard laissez-faire capitalist. But the ultimate objective is to teach kids to respect Western culture and Western Ideals. And as a former VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) volunteer, I know that many producers would simply donate stuff (video, software, and music) as a tax write-off to organizations with a charitable mission. Lastly, many documentary videos (Nat Geo, BBC, Frontline, and others) are intended for educational purposes. Why would/should they even bother copyrighting their broadcasts? Why not get a torrent download to share with students for bonafide processes of edification?

What you are asking is whether or not you could get in to trouble for downloading pirated movies or TV shows and the answer is 'yes', doing so is illegal and can net you some serious legal problems if caught. Piratebay has been in trouble several times, in 2006 it was the subject of a raid by police who stormed the building and confiscated its servers over copyright violation claims.

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