If you wanted to to download free movies online would it be legal or not? That is the question many people ask me, and all I can answer is that it depends on the movies and their age. You can legally download public domain movies use file sharing software also known as peer to peer or P2P software. It's not the software that's illegal. It's what you use it for.
For example, if you use your car to race guys on the freeway at twice the speed limit it's not the car that's illegal, it's the way you use it. In fact, very little software is illegal - it's how people use it that can break the law, and people tend to use certain types of software more illegally than others. File sharing is one.
Why is this, and how does it work? The why is obvious - because P2P software is very easy to use and the temptation to download copyright protected material is immense. The way it works is that file sharing software enables you to connect to a part of the hard drive of any computer in the network, and download any files on that part of the door's hard drive.
So let's say you were looking for the latest version of Titanic. You login and enter 'Titanic' into the search box. That will come up with a list of seven movies beginning with the German 1943 propaganda movie (don't ask!) of that name, and ending with the 1997 Kate Winslet version, just after the (better to me) Catherine Zeta Jones 'Titanic' a year earlier that didn't get the acclaim it should have received.
However, back to ways to download free movies online and the original versions of the Titanic: the 1943 version would have now been in the public domain, its copyright (50 years) having expired. However, the movie and music moguls changed this to 70 years after the death of the originator. Walt Disney beware!
Nevertheless, you can likely download free movies online if the movie was first released 70 years ago. The originator's name could be open to argument, but it is unlikely that anybody will chase you for downloading the original 1943 version of the Titanic: the originator of that was Goebbels, Hitler's Minister for Propaganda! It showed Americans as incompetent dummies (who ended up the dummy then!). Nobody will complain if you download public domain movies such as these.
In modern days however you can download free movies online by using P2P file sharing software and you can also use the same software services to download free music tracks and free games. You must make sure that the tracks and games you download are not protected by copyright, and the best file sharing software will warn you when a particular movie file or music track is protected.
The reason why people still use this form of software in spite of the extension of the copyright period is twofold:
a) Because they believe that the music and movie moguls are being greedy by extending the copyright period to long after their own deaths that makes it next to impossible to download public domain movies any more, and
b) Because many artists, particularly the younger ones, use this type of free publicity to let their names and their work be known, and while this applies mainly to music, it also applies to the younger movie studios that want to find the public's reaction to their work. So they make their work free for those that want to use P2P software to download it.
Nothing illegal about that, and for many it works very well. When you download free movies online that have been written, produced and directed by amateurs you can often come across gems such as The Blair Witch Project and others that while not freely available, were nevertheless were frequently downloaded which undoubtedly contributed to their success.
However, it has to be stressed that to download movies online that are protected under the copyright laws is illegal, and you will subject to high levels of damages. While it is not illegal to download public domain movies, they are being legislated as no longer on the public domain. Nevertheless, it is not individuals such as you that the movie and music moguls are after, but the mainly Oriental cartels that have turned this into a very lucrative business.
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