As @Encrypt-Keeper put it so well:
Trees are trees, but trees aren’t forests.
Forests are what's actually worth prtotecting. This is not different from a field of corn. There is no ecological value to a farm of pine trees. If you ever walked in one, you would know that.
Of course they can. If they set up a honeypot and your ip is caught seeding, even if it is only as an exit point to i2p, they have you connected to the distribution of that torrent. I'm not saying they will win before a court, but they will send you a letter and a lot of people don't challenge those