In the US law about copying mainly the Digital Millennium Copyright Act DMCA focuses a lot on sharing material that is protected by copyright While putting pirated stuff online or making it available is clearly wrong the act of just viewing watching stuff without keeping a copy forever by regular people is a more unclear area legally

Internet companies that give you internet often send warnings if they see you on sites that are known for not having permission to show stuff While suing viewers is rare people who break the rules a lot might have their internet cut off or stopped

The European Union has been stricter since a 2017 ruling by the European Court of Justice CJEU This ruling says clearly that knowingly watching copyrighted stuff from a source without permission breaks copyright rules This is true even if the user doesnt save a copy

How strictly this is enforced changes a lot between EU countries Some countries try harder to go after individual users The important thing is whether the user knows that the source is illegal