No you're just not understanding. Torrent is a web protocol, like http, ftp, and more. It's not inherently illegal.

When you're downloading you spend less time on the public tracker and have less chance of being caught downloading than if you're seeding, or uploading. In the states, the copyright holder takes snapshots of the public trackers IP address pool for specific torrents of their intellectual property, and requests your ISP send you a notice and threaten disconnection.