The law would apply whether you are aware or not of the nature of the content you are storing IF you have "reasonable indication that what you store can indeed be unlawful". If you participate in such a "ring", so to speak, you cannot pretend ignorance as to what logically will be one of the main uses, if not the main use of such network. The main point is that you are willingly participating in a network that expressly facilitates the distribution of such materials. Now if you want to believe that it will be above the law and therefore you cannot be held accountable, you choose that assumption much the same way you choose to assume that driving at 90 mph in a 60 zone won't result in consequences.

In answering you last question (and editing it for it wasn't GEMS but OPAL), it is here: http://cointelegraph.com/news/113014/opalcoin-joins-the-supernet-core-partners-with-storj

And, specifically, these paragraphs: Decentralized storage offers many times the security of centralized cloud storage companies such as Dropbox and Google Drive. This is particularly relevant to companies and individuals that deal with sensitive information. Not only would the information be distributed among hundreds, if not thousands, of Storj contributors, but it could also be encrypted with a multisig address instead of a single-signature one, further decentralizing and securing access to those files from the client side.