If it was the police uploading a new torrent and getting people to download it, it might be.
If it’s a private firm that joins the swarm and observes who is seeding, it’s different. They don’t even need to seed anything. Nor download anything. But even if they did it might be ok.
I seem to remember there was a company uploading their own films to torrent sites just so that they could sue the people who downloaded them and that the courts weren't impressed with that scheme. I wouldn't be surprised if some companies were still doing that while being a little more careful about hiding that fact.
Not really, it's more like undercover policing. They join the swarm, observe who's doing what, and then send letters to their ISP.
You can either join private trackers where they're not allowed to hang out, use a VPN to make you "untraceable" (as far as these petty tyrants are concerned), or both.
