On a scale of 1-10, how illegal is The PirateBay?

[James]

1 being no big deal at all, practically legal. 10 being murder/ life sentence. I only want to download an album or two, and I don't want to end up paying thousands of dollars, go to court, or get caught. Are there any tips to not to get caught. Obviously I'm pretty new to this type of stuff. Any help would be greatly apreciated

[Coulter]

First, download tixati. Please please please please please do not use utorrent
http://www.tixati.com/
Go to settings, select incoming and outgoing communications as encrypted
This will make you personally fine
I'd put it at an illegality level of 2. Just above jaywalking. Piracy has no direct victim

[Duncan]

Your ISP logs all your activities on the Internet. You are not downloading you are stealing. If you are stealing stuff your criminal actions will be logged and the owners of the stolen material can initiate proceedings against you that can result in substantial fines, a criminal record which can lead to loss of job/home etc.

If you do not want to be caught do not do the crime. Go and buy whatever you want.