The most popular type of files to download via P2P are media files and software. Movies, TV episodes and games are very popular.
The problem is that these are almost always protected by international copyright law. If you download a something that is copyrighted work then it is illegal. Singaporean law states that up to $25,000 can be charged for each item downloaded.
Students are not immune from this. In 2007 one media company issued $3,000 fines for downloading its content. Children as young as 7 years old were tracked, identified and issued.
After using a tracking system to collect the IP addresses of sharers, they have successfully forced StarHub – an internet service provider – to reveal the identities of 1000 BitTorrent users they accuse of breaching their copyrights. It had previously forced the ISP SingNet to reveal its customers details.
Read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odex's_actions_against_file-sharing
If you torrent then you are putting yourself at risk of legal prosecution.
The recording industry recently brought down the Limewire network due to copyright infringements.