So far, it seems:
OP made a patch, it was bricking a system and was told to fix it, but was slow to submit a fix. Leah then got the board, made her own patch, and then tested it without any bricks. OP is still listed in the credits. https://libreboot.org/contrib.html#lorenzo-aloe
Torrenting stuff that is public domain or intended by its creators to be shared via BitTorrent isn't illegal. You won't get busted for sharing a Linux ISO or a copy of Moby Dick.
You would get in trouble for media made in or after 1929 (currently). A VPN would help to protect you from being caught for this, but you would most likely never get arrested for downloading, only being a major player in a scene.
And why cops don't stop them? They do. There's laws on books that prohibit them, but in (a lot) of countries, they either don't have a law that stops VPNs, only piracy sites, or simply don't have the time to care about media piracy when there's bigger fish to fry.