No, can be risky unless you're careful. Use the software I mentioned earlier, stick with quality apps like uTorrent, and try to keep to the better torrent sites and most popular files - e.g., if using The Pirate Bay, read comments about a torrent to see if anyone's mentioned concerns.
Try to recognise the better release groups and stick to them - e.g., with movies on Pirate Bay, aXXo is usually OK.
The further you get away from the legal options, the riskier it can be. e.g., delve into serialz, crackz and you're guaranteed to run into dodgy stuff.
Expect something to go wrong, files to be corrupted, your computer to get jacked, your bandwidth to get clogged, etc. Not always a stupid idea to just spend the $20 with Pontel and get what you want without the hassle I reckon.