Same disclaimer: Not a lawyer.
Elfwreck is correct. At least, I'm certain that's how it is in Canada, and I'm fairly sure it's the same in the states. Only the party making the new copy of the file, which is considered to be the uploader and not the downloader, is guilty of piracy. (Much like a person buying a counterfeit is not guilty of counterfeit -- only the one who made it is.)
Of course, you would need to make sure that you're downloading the files in such a way that you're not uploading or sharing them in addition to the download.
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However, the uploader could be guilty of copyright infringement in a country he's not a resident of, by making it available to you. Encouraging out-of-country downloads to places where the material is copyrighted, could be seen as inciting a crime. (Not sure if cross-country copyright infringement has been prosecuted. DMCA violations have been prosecuted on non-US citizens whose "crimes" took place in countries where they were not crimes, but DRM tech was involved, not unauthorized copies.)
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I wonder about this. I think there's a legal difference between distributing something a Canadian is licenced only to sell in Canada outside the country (which would obviously be a breach of that contract, and thereby copyright infringement) and a Canadian putting up something on a website that in Canada has no copyright at all. If the Canadian court does not recognize the copyright, do they have any responsibility to the international community to exercise foreign copyright law? I doubt it, personally.
The key difference is that the courts up here probably wouldn't recognize the copyright at all, so copyright infringement may not be possible.