Yea. If they were to sue you for downloading (but not uploading) they could have huge landmark cases for millions of dollars in damages. Because the current math goes like:

  statutory damage limit = $150k
  people we *think* you distributed to = 1 million people
  damages = $150k * 1m = profit!

You would have a hard time convincing a judge that either: a) the copyright owner suffered millions in damages over a single download of a movie or b) that the person needs millions of dollars in damages to 'teach people a lesson.'