VidAngel clarified what "distribution" meant in the context of "digital piracy". Receipt is not a qualifying symptom to make you an offender, you need to actively make available for others.
As far as I am aware, in US law, there is no subject code specifically for and simply for possessing/receiving pirated material (unless it's legislated in some other manner: CP, private govt documents, etc). Despite many court attempts to argue that "downloading" is equivalent to "making a copy".
This is why, during the MPAA/RIAA war against p2p, they specifically targeted the fact that all users were mesh sharing files. It's why one user was charged millions for "sharing a file a multitude of times" and another was let off completely free for sharing a minuscule percentage of many downloaded files.
"As far as I am aware, in US law, there is no subject code specifically for and simply for possessing/receiving pirated material"
You have to look at the case law.
This article on contributory infringement seems relevant and states:
"One who knowingly induces, causes or materially contributes to copyright infringement, by another but who has not committed or participated in the infringing acts themselves, may be held liable as a contributory infringer if they had knowledge, or reason to know, of the infringement. See, e.g., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., 545 U.S. 913 (2005); Sony Corp. v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417 (1984)."
"This is why, during the MPAA/RIAA war against p2p, they specifically targeted the fact that all users were mesh sharing files."
They probably did that because they wanted to make an example of someone, so they went with whoever would be easiest to win a large judgement against. If someone merely downloaded a copy, the judgment against them would be smaller.
I certainly don't see how someone downloading pirated content isn't a contributory infringer at the very least.
As far as I am aware, in US law, there is no subject code specifically for and simply for possessing/receiving pirated material (unless it's legislated in some other manner: CP, private govt documents, etc). Despite many court attempts to argue that "downloading" is equivalent to "making a copy".
This is why, during the MPAA/RIAA war against p2p, they specifically targeted the fact that all users were mesh sharing files. It's why one user was charged millions for "sharing a file a multitude of times" and another was let off completely free for sharing a minuscule percentage of many downloaded files.