That used to be the case, right up until a judge said that uploading was also legal (since it was only an equivalent of giving access to a digital photocopy machine.) Now, I don't know what the current status is, as another judge can just as easily disagree with that precedent.

Actually the descision was based on a lack of evidence presented that infringement had actually occured. Uploading is still illegal, but identifying someone who's made the file AVAILABLE (placed in a shared directory) without proving that they've actually sent it anywhere is not sufficient to prove they've infringed on the copyright.