As hundred of thousands of refugees have come into Europe, many of the newcomers are unclear about the dangers and consequences of illegally downloading material in their new host countries. 

In 2016, a German computer magazine called "c't" reported that the number of refugees were receiving letters from law firms asking for money due to illegal downloading and that one Syrian refugee had to pay 815 euros ($965.5) for downloading a movie through a torrenting service.

The reasoning behind copyright law is simple: to protect the creators of digital content from their content being given out for free and without their permission. Torrenting programs such as BitTorrent allow for users to obtain illegal content, but consumers often underestimate the risk of being caught.

Law firms specializing in copyright law may send a letter to the refugee after finding the IP address that users accessed for the illegal downloading. They might be asked to pay a fine of possibly hundreds or thousands of euros. Other times the letter will only be a warning to cease and desist.

Regulations by biggest EU countries

The EU has its own set of regulations to protect copyrighted content. The EU copyright legislation protects authors, performers, producers and broadcasters.  The European Commission monitors copyright law and the Court of Justice of the European Union interprets the various regulations across the EU.

This means, what is determined to be protected copyrighted content is uniform across the EU – a movie or video that is illegal to download in one country is likely to be illegal to download in another. It also makes it easier for EU countries to fight piracy together.

Read more about the EU Copyright directive here: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/eu-copyright-legislation

In Germany, the Copyright Act protects original work from being exploited. If a refugee is accused of illegally downloading material, he or she may approach the consumer protection agency or the "Verbraucherzentrale" for guidance.

There are also consumer protection centers across Europe that can settle disputes between consumers and companies based in EU countries. You can find more their locations and about the mission of these centers here: https://www.evz.de/en/about-us/who-we-are/  

In France, an agency called HADOPI ensures compliance with copyright laws. Often, offenders may just get a warning but the offender could be sent to court after multiple warnings where they may pay up to 1500 euros.  In Italy, multiple illegal downloading sites are blocked.