Yes, they're lying to you. An internet company cannot be held liable if someone downloads a movie illegally on their network. They hold the benefit of Common Carrier service, just like the phone system. For instance, Verizon also cannot be held liable if a crime is planned or committed on their network, either.
The VPN is keeping you safer than choosing between streaming or torrent. If your ISP is that draconian (and many are, so I believe it), a VPN hides not only the network packet destinations, all major ones encrypt the data itself so that the ISP can't do deep inspections, which is good for you. Of course at that point, torrenting is just as safe as streaming because your ISP won't know where your network traffic is going to.
That's due to company policy, not laws.
Yes, they're lying to you. An internet company cannot be held liable if someone downloads a movie illegally on their network. They hold the benefit of Common Carrier service, just like the phone system. For instance, Verizon also cannot be held liable if a crime is planned or committed on their network, either.
The VPN is keeping you safer than choosing between streaming or torrent. If your ISP is that draconian (and many are, so I believe it), a VPN hides not only the network packet destinations, all major ones encrypt the data itself so that the ISP can't do deep inspections, which is good for you. Of course at that point, torrenting is just as safe as streaming because your ISP won't know where your network traffic is going to.