Used pia. Got 5 warnings from time Warner for downloading tv shows. The fifth time they cut me off and I had to talk with a manager. Basically the sixth time was gonna be when they hand over my info to the the TV station so they can prosecute.
So I got pia and never looked back, worked a charm.
For those following along, you were almost assuredly using torrent right?
By its nature torrents download and upload at the same time.
They were able to come after you because you uploaded the file as well. You became a pirate.
In the United States, there is not currently a legal precedent to go after end users watching online streams. It's incredibly difficult to make somebody watching a video online liable for the copyright infringement being performed by the person sending the stream. The argument goes that the end user can't and shouldn't be required to figure out if the streamer has paid the license.
Flipping through YouTube for instance, you don't know who has fair use and not. And you're not a lawyer to even make a good guess.
So while Dana was making a lot of noise a few years ago about going after users of some of the streaming sites that got shut down, it's the streaming site themselves that's liable.
And of course this is ever changing and of course it's different per country. And of course I'm not a lawyer so you should talk to yours and not take this as legal advice.