Can you get caught for downloading torrents?

like movies and software? do some software have things where they can track you if you aren't using a good CD key or something? or do they only find ppl who seed a lot?

There should be a possibility of it, at least the RIAA has posted their own torrents to harvest for more IP addresses recently. You should also use PeerGuardian and/or TOR (The Onion Router) for any other intrusion, such as the companies themselves, some educational places and private anti-piracy groups like they have in Scandinavia (Piratbyrån and Piratgruppen). The people who seed more are probably looked more  for than random leechers, as they "do more damage" by redistributing more copies even after getting it.

Bottom line is, if it's copyright infringement then yeah, you can get caught for downloading in theory.

By using Peerguardian at least you'll be able to see what happens underneath the surface, or what slips  by your firewall, and block it.