i was wondering if there are any laws against downloading movies

i was wondering if there was any laws about downloading movies from a place like kazaa or limewire, etc... and if so what are the single user penaltys for breaking these laws.

Many "free" downloads whether music or video fall under trademark infringement due to the unauthorized "copies". The offering of this service typically leads to Civil litigation on the part of the Plaintiff (producer of product) and the Defendant (distributor) of the "Pirated Copy". It is pretty rare for the Plaintiff to seek out Prosecution against each recipient, for the enforcement of the State and Federal Laws, including but not limited to; the Lanham Act.

While you may not have as much of a chance for prosecution as Kazaa may, you still can be prosecuted for copyright infringement if you upload a copyrighted file. No one can guarantee that you will not be singled out for prosecution, albeit the risk is small. This should make logical sense to you, after all, shouldn't there be a law to protect someone from giving away something you created and regularly charge money to use/buy?