I have a question that maybe someone can answer.
I prefer watching movies on my PC using netflix watch instantly feature. I have a friend though that insists on watching a web site that shows pirated films. She has watched WallE and other films that are not even on dvd yet. Wouldn't this website be illegal? Couldn't they track her down through IP addresses? I mean dang it. I know what she is doing is wrong and she doesn't understand that. How or what should I do?
[question posted by keasling]
responses and comments:
They probably wouldn't bother with her. They'd go after the ones who uploaded/illegally recorded the films in the first place. She's not the one who's costing the production companies, really. If the website is hosting the videos, then it would be illegal. If it just has links to other site that have uploaded the site, then it wouldn't, technically. I know of one website that links to videos on megaupload and youtube. That site isn't really breaking the law. There isn't anything you really can do. As long as she isn't downloading the videos or uploading them herself, she should be fine. [bwaybaby]
Yeap... They mostly go to find and ban the owners of the site... I even think that piracy helps artists and actors sometimes... I mean would you all go to all the concerts you went in your life if you didn't download and listen songs? ;) [lakantar]
anything pirated is illegal of course. if some people enjoys using or doing that for it is not as expensive as the legal ones. here in our country there are lot of pirated dvds out in the market place at the side walks but still authorities are not doing anything about it. i dont know why. it hurts to say that they are affecting the movie and singing industries but they should know how to control it too [roniroxas]
You can get just about any pirated movie here at the flea markets. I explain to my kids that what they are doing is raising the prices at the movie theaters and raising the prices of the dvds. So I have got them knowing that it is stealing either way. [keasling]
They wouldnt bother to track it because its very wide spread. They are more concern to track down those who make pirated dvds and cds. [jaygee96]
I encountered something similar the other day: a website streaming full length movies. They had so many titles, I couldn't believe my eyes. Even more astonishing was when I clicked on one, a screen popped up and the film started playing. I did a little research and read some forums about the legitimacy of this type of site. Essentially, I discovered that the site was legal because they were not hosting the pirated material - that is, the actual movies were not stored on the site's servers. The website was simply providing a directory of links to pirated movies stored other places on the internet - this would explain why several of the links were dead or not working. To me, this seems pretty illegal, but the site is still up and running and is quite popular. You won't get in trouble for watching pirated movies that are being streamed from websites. As long as you don't download or upload anything, you'll be fine. The government isn't going to waste its time tracking thousands of IP addresses when they can just cut off the source. [locke49]
Thank you. I just wanted to make sure of this as it is my IP she is using. Since we use the one modem for both computers. [keasling]
This is what people need to know about these types of websites.The thing is that these type of websites state they are not doing anything illegal. All these websites do is provide link's to places on the web that MIGHT show these pirated movies online to watch. And a lot of the links that are submitted to these types of websites are from users that join this site. These types of website do not upload these movies or TV show's on to their website.. Basically all these websites are doing is pointing a arrow to places online that might have these movie's online to watch. For example, lets say a guy named "Joe" get's a youtube account and uploads the latest hottest movie on youtube, He changes the name of the movie to some numbers so youtube will not be able to find this movie ( or it takes them awhile to find this movie) then Joe's friend Steve finds out that his friend uploaded this movie on youtube , so then Steve joins this type of websites that provides links to watch new movies for free, Steve joins this site, then submits the links to his friends youtube movie links to this website. Ok, so imagine hundreds of people doing this at this website. Then later on youtube find this movie deletes it then cancels Joe's account. The only group of people who would get into trouble for doing this would be Joe and youtube for showing copyrighted movies, not the website that has links that users submitted. So telling on your friend won't work not unless she's uploading movies on youtube or other video sharing websites because all she's doing is clicking on the links and watching them on youtube or other video sites. [cassandralynn]
Thank you for explaining. I guess I just feel that is wrong to watch them in this manner. And for her it is no big deal. [keasling]
I'm sure your friend is safe. I have watched a number of movies on those sites and no one has knocked on my door yet happy I have noticed though that if the site is found by the movie company that made the film the video is removed and a notice is put in its place saying that it was removed for infringement. The other strange thing I have noticed about a lot of those sites is that they are not in the U.S. so it might be harder to make them do anything at all. [fwidman]
Like there isn't enough spyware on here already! lol [fwidman]
All that you can do in tell your friend what you know, and the rest is up to her. The film industry has the resources and monetary interest to track down pirates and they do. The record industry does the same thing. I have read a few reports concerning the fines for illegal downloads. For relatively minor offenses, with court cost, your talking several thousand dollars. For copy right infringement, jail time is recommended. What your friend does after you give her the facts is up to her. Don't let her down load on your computer. [ron0540]
Yeah, you don't want another Lars Ulrich suing a 14 year old girl over a downloaded song... [Grievous797]
I think that the website that is allowing her to download the movie will be the first to be punished then the movie industry can pursue all the millions of users that have been downloading the movies. In reality "boot leg" movies will never be stopped as long as there are people can't wait another two months to watch them from a legal source like NetFlix. [mrghill]
While the federal laws pertaining to internet copyright infringement are wholly unclear, the uploader of the movies are the ones infringing. Not the watchers. Viacom tried to pull a stunt saying that whomever watched a viacom owned show on YouTube was infringing copyright and needed to be punished. However, it did not pass. Sleep safe in the knowledge that your ISP does not record your actions, the SWAT team will not break down your door, and your life will continue normally. I would not advise you to allow the downloading of movies onto your computer, because some might have trojans and malware hidden in them. If she wants to continue watching movies on your computer, at least guide her to one that streams the videos. [Grievous797]
I believe she is old enough to make decisions about her own life. If you told her it was not good then you have done your job as a friend. This is pretty much what a friend can do. I tell my friends doing something is stupid but that is all that I can do. They can go ahead and do the stupid thing because they have the right to do what they want unless they run afoul of the law and it is not my job to uphold the law in this case. [underdogtoo]
Why should you do anything? What are you going to turn her in and lose a friend over movies? Hell do you like paying for your movies? Im a pirate, if its out there, I download it. I used to belong to netflix, but oh so much faster to just download stuff. The likely hood of being caught is small. Ive been a pirate for about 13 years now, and havent been arrested or sued or anything like that. [darkjedi]
Well in fact I may go to the movies maybe once a year if that. I always wait for them to a) come out on dvd and buy or b) I wait for netflix and rent it or watch instantly through them. I rather be safe than sorry. I am teaching 3 children the difference between right and wrong and I try my hardest to do that. I feel it is wrong to support people who pirate these movies making it even more costly to go to the movies than ever before. [keasling]
Hi there, I always watch pirated movies. I'm from the Philippines and we aren't very strict when it comes to piracy so I'm confident that no one will arrest me anytime soon. We can also buy pirated dvds over here which have excellent quality and are a quarter of the price of one movie ticket. Anyway if anyone should be arrested, it has to be the people behind the website and not us who are smart enough to take advantage of freebies online. :) [mimico]
yes, it is illegal, but they would go after the website more then its customers. i can't be called an angel myself, i don't go for a lot of US movies but i get things from Japan (which can't find in the US) on p2p share sites. those are harder to track from what i heard. i mean i don't feel its that big a deal, for the most part i like to buy the dvd and even the things i download now i just want to watch it and i'll buy the dvd when i get a chance to. you can probably warn and lecture her all you want, but its not going to change a thing. try invite her to watch movies with you if she wants to watch them that bad. most of the time those pirate ones suck (i've watched some my husband would get from his friends) sometimes you'll see test patterns or if they took it from the theater then people walking in front and really bad sound quality. [emarie]
Well, what people bring a mini - camcorder to the movie theater and record the newly release movies everyday. As soon as they got the recorded movies, they uploaded to those websites. Would somebody do something about it in the movie theater? What about people selling pirated DVD on the flea market? They sell brand new movies just out of the theater. Most websites like watchmovie.net contains millions of uploaded movie from different sources, most are recorded movies from the theater. And these websites attract millions of visitors everyday, because it is free. Who wants to go to theater? It cost $10 a ticket, it is way to expensive to watch movie every weekend nowadays. [jzbrynn]
My own personal opinion is that the theaters should be able to search for camcorders. This will help stop part of the problem. And I know here in Texas there are already stings at different flea markets to stop the ones selling them. One day my children got all excited because someone was showing Shrek the third on DVD while it was still at Theaters and that is when I made sure that my children knew what they had done and what they are doing is against the law. I also told them that is why I can't take them to see new movies when they come out. [keasling]
If U Upload From a Computer than Only ur Ip Address Will Be Detected and coming to the point catching u up its simply not that making any point .... its too hard to know which state which country and what ever so just be happy and dont think about all this matters at all .......THAT SOMEBODY IS GONNA CATCH U UP AND PUT IN FOR PRISON its not that easy at all [nisarcrazy4u]
i think they cant arrest you because of that and they aren t that smart to look your ip adress and find out who you are and stuff. but i tell you be careful cuz when i downloaded new film somebody hacked into my computer and crashed it so the repairing costed 200€ to get files back and so on so be careful! [raxerdis]
i know alot of sites they are called movie links they just link movies to their sites uploaded from different streaming video sites like tudou, youtube, googlevideo and yukou. if the question is if you can track them?? not a chance coz streaming sites get videos from users and you can't file a suit against this sites coz they have their own copyrights. sorry for the grammar [xaiden21]
do not know what should i say here ,she is your friend so can not suggest to anything that may affect your friendship ,try to make here understand that this is wrong or lie to her that cops are spying and may catch people watching pirated movies in such sites by tracking ip addresses or so. [abhiroop85]
yes pirated films have been a big head-ace to film producers..and i usually watch films that have downloaded from various websites..and some times theaters also... [chinna533]
I use one of those sights myself. Its not just movies that are now in the theatre though....a lot of the movies have already been on tv or they come from the Sci-Fi channel or Lifetime, etc. I dont know how she can enjoy some of thos though. I tried watching a movie that had just opened in theatres and its bad. It sounds like youre in a tunnel for one thing. I tried to figure out how they did this, and its actually people who sneak in a video camera (or maybe someone who works there) and they record while they watch. Its very bad quality and you can hear people cough and they get up and walk in fron of the camera, etc. Most of them dont even work all they way through. As far as getting in trouble theres not anything anyone can do If youre watching Scifi or tv movies. I like to check out parts of the newer movies though because Im one of those who likes to buy the movie, so If it looks like a good movie Ill go out and get it. Like I said you cant possibly enjoy those others on the site because the quality is so poor and not enjoyable. There probably are people out there who take advantage of those sights, but if you look in my collection youll see I probably bought a movie as soon as it came out due to the part I got to see on the site. Im not downloading or selling or cutting into anyones profits, I buy it. [tschnyer47]
no one can do anything...if we watch or download a pirated movie.....we can land into problems if we are trying to keep the illegal content in our own websites....internet is used by so many users...and they cant track each and every person who is download the pirated movies.....so ur safe....and u need not worry abt this issue..thanq.....happy mylotting.... [rajueie]
no my frends...u will not go to jail if u download pirated movies or music......the one whi has uploaded the movies will go to jail......ok....is it clear now....thanq....happy mylotting.... [rajueie]
Hi, I prefer to buy my movies, but I think they should change the laws when it comes to pirated films and music because it seems much to harsh to punish people for that sort of thingrolleyes I think that as long as the person is not selling the movies and is only using them for there own private enjoyment there shouldn't be a problem, but I also think that films that haven't come out on DVD yet should be blocked from people to see until the film company has had the chance to make money on it first.happy [apples99]
If she is watching them through watch-movirs.net, then she is not doing anything illegal unless she attempts to download them. That particular site does not store movies, it is merely a place to list where movies are available. If you click a link there, you are taken to another site to watch them. It is technically not illegal to watch them, only illegal to download them, and they don't have to be downloaded to your computer to watch. [myklj999]
It would be illegal yes....I don't pirate dvd's. [teetee195]
its a part of life. some people will do things the right way and some people will do things the wrong way. you keep watching movies on your pc and let her watch the pirated film on her pc. when you compare the movies you have seen, you'll see that watching the unpirated film is a thousan times better than the pirated one. let the big wigs of the film industry catch the bad guys. the less people that participate in pirated films, the sooner it'll go out of business. [angelwithkids]
Yes, what she's doing is illegal and she's going to be sorry if she gets caught. I know someone that also steals movies from online and sees nothing wrong with it. Personally I'd rather buy them on DVD then take the chance of getting caught and ending up with a $250,000 fine and prison time which is the punishment last time I looked. -FROM THE ASHES- [Phoenix08]
Keasling, If you personally don't like what she is doing, tell her to get her own internet service provider. Tell her to buy her own laptop/computer and order her own internet service. I feel that watching pirated films is ok, but I also feel your plight. For example, if someone was watching fake child porn on my computer like barely legal or something I would feel very creeped out (just like you do) and even though it may not technically be illegal, I would tell them they can't use my computer/web service. If they didn't listen, I'd cancel my service or even kick them out...etc etc. Point being - You pay for the internet, don't let someone use it in a way that makes you uncomfortable. [fark11111]
That site must be an illegal site, however, I think they normally go after the illegal sites rather than chasing individual users for such crimes. [suruchi86]