Being afraid of something like this is a good reason to start using Netflix. You have to wait for the disc to get to you, but than you can just rip and watch it later. Or use newsgroups I guess.
This month, I'm browsing through my Netflix immediate-watchable list and what do I see? Yeah, that Nic Cage movie.
The diabolical genius is that (as far as I understand it) you can avoid the enormously high payouts because you don't share it with anyone you just download it. The services are in the clear as long as they respond to DMCA requests and nobody goes after the uploaders.