Donald, Millions of people use Some type of P2P program everyday and I don't here to much about people getting arrested. Usually it's in the form of fines and some can be very costly but if you are fairly smart about how you play the game you shouldn't have to much to be concerned about.
If you don't want to come up on anyones radar then the safest thing to do is to not share your files. Now with that being said, if everyone stopped sharing, well you now that would defeat the purpose.
I recommend you use PG2 which will help. Go to the Link below to find out more and to download.
Phoenix Labs » PeerGuardian 2.