Well first off, torrenting doesn't "require" a VPN, you may want to look up your area etc... in most of the united states, basically if you torrent without a VPN, there's a chance that your ISP will detect it and typically they will send you a letter saying "we know you downloaded _____ illegally, if we catch you again, we will cancel your service".

which depending on what you are going for (like say new releases and big name targets are what they will be watching for the most)... that could take years to even happen.

Now as far as safe, and lower risk... you could always look up pirating on the IRC... it's not the most user friendly route out there, but that's kind of the point, it's ancient technology and for the most part no one bothers to monitor it.

and then of course there's just tons of bootleg streaming sites. bottom line anything that's not peer 2 peer, is pretty much impossible for ISPs to identify what you are doing on... and thus are pretty safe.