The banning, common on most forums, of links to torrents, has always been a source of puzzlement to me.
What you are stating, Whoosh, is essentially correct. However, with open discussion of build downloads and cracks, for example, for cheating the time expiry dates (Orbit and similar), I don't think it is of great concern. The jury will remain out, on the subject of the legality of buld downloading and useage, so at this stage Microsoft are using the infamous Nelson's eye on the subject. However, next week, with, hopefully for all, the public release of the RC, it will become an open subject. Unfortunately, the open discussion of methods of cheating the system will contiue into the RTM stage. It is too late to prevent that. I f you browse through some of the older Vista forums you will see the truth of that.
Apart from a personal attitude towards torrents, I do not see why it would concern Microsoft that you are downloading from their site or a torrent. I am able to get a legal download, and Microsoft's servers, in my experience, outclass the torrents for speed. But it is a fact that it is sometimes quicker to use a P2P for downloading ceratin software (Linux distributions, for example)
Fwiw. There are several countries who are now instructing their ISP's to ban the use of P2P's. I do not support this policy. The country where I reside is one such.
