80% of Americans think it stealing to walk out of a store with a DVD that they did not pay for. Just half as many people think downloading a movie from the Net is a crime. The fact is that there is really no difference at all between the two; these are both serious crimes that are liable to be punished by by law.
If you download a movie from a P2P file sharing program, you do not have the permission of the individual or corporation who owns the rights to that movie.
This is the same thing as going to the DVD film store and putting a DVD in your bag and strolling out the door without paying. Peer-to-peer networks like BearShare, Kazaa , Vuze (aka Bittorrent) and LimeWire do not have the consent of the rightful owner to distribute copyrighted motion picture download files over the Internet, unlike legal sites..
Why Is File Sharing Of Movie Downloads Against the law?
The foremost object of copyrighting materials and DVD movies is for the protection of the rights of the individual or corporation initially responsible for the creation of the material (in our case movies).
Those who own the rights to protected material have the exclusive power to alter, duplicate or distribute their product.
Copyright laws are to prevent the sale or use of the protected material by unauthorized methods.
Imagine working day in and day out on an amazing research article for years, only to have it posted online for everybody to download free.
This is how artists and entertainers feel whenever their intellectual property is passed out for free all around the Net, providing them no compensation for it.
Now, you are beginning to see what is driving so many in the direction of legal action for motion picture downloads.
How To Tell What Is Real?
It may be a problem to tell if the site that you are visiting is legal or not. If the site that you are on is not a trusted site where you are certain that you are downloading completely licensed movies every time, then do not download a single movie.
Here are some tips on how to discern illegal movie download sites:
1.If the web site claims to have ?millions of movies to download? , ?80 million movies online?, ?movies,Television shows and music downloads? etc.. all for a small one time fee then you may almost be sure the web site will sell you P2P software.
2.Try looking at the small print in bottom part of the website?s front page. usually for illegal P2P movie download sites you will find some form of warning that looks like this: (most of these sites use the very same warning):
?There are currently millions of users downloading and trading files legally on file-sharing networks. You can|, for instance, legally download music from over 850 bands and more than 20,000 live concerts but also have access to numerous software titles and games. File sharing has enabled music fans from all over the world to build the largest library of recorded music in history.
File sharing is not illegal as long as you obey and comply with all relevant copyright regulations. Sharing copyrighted material without the permission to do so is illegal. You will find detailed directions on how to remain legal within the member’s area. The purchase of a membership, however, is not a license to upload or download copyrighted material. We urge you to respect copyright and share responsibly.?
Here is a different well-liked text you might find on these sites
?This web site has no affiliation whatsoever with the owner of this software program and merely provides links to freeware and/or shareware software, technical support and tutorials.?
3. Try looking for a genuine trust seal on the web site?s registration pages.
4.Several record companies, movie studios and individual artists post knowledge on their official website to let you know if they allow their copyrighted material to be distributed online. Be sure to check those precise sites before you download their material from any third party or share it with others.
Concerning Copyright of Movies.
Copyrights are only valid for fifty to one hundred twenty years. As soon as a copyright expires, the material that one at one time protected becomes open to the public. Material that is available in public domain can legally be reproduced, distributed and downloaded by anyone, anywhere, anytime. The majority of recent works are most likely protected currently under copyright regulations.
Where Can I Go If I Still Want To Download?
Everybody on Earth wants some form of entertainment from time to time, and for most of us it is music, video games, TV programmes, movies, PC applications, etc. With the threat of legal action hanging over your head with every movie you download, where may you go to be certain that the material you are listening to, watching, playing and downloading is legal?
The truth is that you have several choices, if you are still keen to build your collection by downloading movies from the Net.
* You could search the Internet for sites that supply updated lists of websites, where you may legally download, watch or burn to CD the files that you would like for a minimal fee. Enjoy full-length movies without any commercials or spyware to worry you.
* A number of television networks offer full episodes of their programmes with commercial interruption from their official site. Networks such as NBC, ABC and CBS typically offer new episodes of their shows the following morning after they are broadcast on air in their ordinary time slot (most of the time these are geo limited to the United States only).
* MySpace and Fox are working together to bring you Fox on Demand, permitting you to watch the most recent episodes of your favorite Fox programmes online for free.
* You will find full-length movies with expired copyrights and accessible to the public at Entertainment Magazine Online.
* If music is your thing, you could create a radio station of your own that just plays the genres and songs that you decide on with limited commercial interruption for a limited time every month for free at Pandora Radio. You can make playlists and listen to your favourites at FineTune.
With so many options at your disposal, there is no necessity to go astray and risk serious fines or jail time by downloading movies files illegally.
The Significant Risks Of Sharing Movie Files
The holders of copyrights have methods of finding out which movie download files are being shared by your computer.
All they have to do is get in touch with the authorities and send them your way because the law is in favour of the copyright holder. The RIAA sent letters to almost four hundred university students in 2007 related to illegal file sharing.
The students, not their schools, were each held responsible for paying the restitution required to resolve the claims against them for copyright infringement. In as little as six months, the RIAA had brought claims against over two thousand university students. These students were made to pay an average of $3,000 per person, not including court costs and attorney fees.
The RIAA is not merely targeting university students, this is only one example. It does not matter who you are, how old you are or where you live, if you download or share files on the Net illegally you will beheld responsible.
Even if you are a minor, do not think you will get away with it; they will come after your parents if they cannot get to you.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is also setting out to prosecute violators as well. So, it is not worth the danger you take with any other procedure.
Do not be mistaken in believing that legal action is the only danger to downloading files illegally from the Net.
You may be one of the number who does not worry about being caught, but do not consider that hackers might get into your system and download your personal and confidential data and use it for a horde of malicious things.
P2P file sharing programs work by letting the users connect to one another’s hard drives to copy files. Any files that you have in shared folders is accessible to anyone who wants to steal or copy them.
Numerous programs do not even use specialized folders for sharing, instead they simply supply users access to each other’s “Documents” folder. This means that all of your Word documents, photographs, banking software, and more could become at risk. You should know that on average one out of three computer attacks are the result of using P2P networks.
Peer-to-peer networks are one of the easiest methods for hackers to spread their spyware and viruses all over the Internet. All they have to do is make a file that contains a virus, but give it a name that is the same as a popular song or movie title. The P2P user downloads the file to his or her computer expecting to see the latest blockbuster, but instead all they get is a seriously infected computer.
Horror stories of what can happen to your computer if you use P2P file sharing programs are in abundance.
What You Should Do In order to avoid the significant consequences of downloading movies from the Net:
It is suggested that if you are using any P2P clients, you disable them instantly and remove their software from your computer.
A number of guides are obtainable with directions on disabling a peer-to-peer file sharing client and taking it off your machine. Simply type, “disable P2P” into your favourite search engine to find all the info you need.
The best way to avoid the consequences of illegal movie downloads is to sign up to a legal movie download website. These web site just charge a negligible one time fee, instead of the “per download” cost that you pay from other legal websites. Legal sites with movie downloads are becoming more and more popular as people are becoming worried about lawsuits, identity theft and computer damage.
These site offer faster movie download speeds than you will find on any of the illegal P2P networks because they are coming from their own server and are not limited to the amount of people sharing the file ,the movie being downloaded is not shared in the first place.
In addition, the quality of the movies downloaded tends to be much better because you have access to the full-length, licensed version, as opposed to something that was recorded by someone who smuggled a camera into the movie theater.
The movies that you get from legal sites you are able to watch instantly as they stream on your computer. You can| download them to your hard drive if you like to watch them later, or you could burn them to CD or DVD if you want to put on an external player.
It is strongly recommended that you use legal download sites to download movies from the Net. The subscription costs are cheap and the site is simple to use. Most importantly you are able to enjoy movies in peace without having to constantly look over your shoulder to be certain the MPAA, RIAA, FBI or a swam of hackers are not looking for you.
Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently concerned with what is the-best home theater projector. If you are interested in a Home Movie Theatre, please click through to our site now.