The Consequences Of Downloading Movies Illegally From P2P Networks
Eight out of ten Americans consider it stealing to walk out of a store with a DVD that they did not pay for. Only half as many people think downloading a movie from the Internet is a crime. The fact is that there is really no difference at all between the two; these are both serious crimes that are punishable by law.
When 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 movie store and putting a DVD in your bag and walking 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 movie download files over the Internet, unlike legal sites such as MoviesCapital.com, CinemaNow and Netflix.
Why Is File Sharing Of Movie Downloads Illegal?
The main purpose of copyrighting materials and DVD movies is for the protection of the rights of the individual or corporation initially responsible of creation of the material (in our case movies).
Those who own the rights to protected material have the exclusive right to modify, duplicate or distribute their product.
Copyright laws work to prevent the sale or use of the protected material through unauthorized means.
Imagine working day in and day out on an amazing research piece for years, only to have it posted online for everyone to download free.
This is how artists and entertainers feel when their intellectual property is passed out for free all over the Internet, providing them no compensation for it.
Now, you are beginning to see what is driving so many in the direction of legal action for movie downloads.
How To Tell What Is Real?
It can be difficult 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 such as moviescapital.com, where you are positive that you are downloading fully licensed movies every time, then do not download a single movie.
Here are some pointers on how to distinguish illegal movie download sites:
1.If the website claims to have “millions of movies to download” , “80 million movies online”, “movies,Tv shows and music downloads” etc.. all for a small one time fee then you can almost be certain the website will sell you P2P software.
2.Try looking at the small print in bottom part of the website’s main page.
usually for illegal P2P movie download sites you will find some kind 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 example, legally download music from over 850 bands and over 20,000 live concerts but also have access to multiple software titles and games. File sharing has enabled music fans from around 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 laws. Sharing copyrighted material without the permission to do so is illegal. You will find detailed instructions on how to stay 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 another popular text you may find on these sites
“This website has no affiliation whatsoever with the owner of this software program and only provides links to freeware and/or shareware software, technical support and tutorials.“
3. Try looking for a genuine trust seal on the website’s registration pages, for example moviescapital.com has a trust seal from Ebuyershield.com on its registration page.
4. A number of record companies, movie studios and individual artists post information on their official website to let you know if they allow their copyrighted material to be distributed online.
Be sure to check those specific sites before you download their material from any third party or share it with others.
About Copyright of Movies
Copyrights are only valid for fifty to one hundred twenty years. As soon as a copyright expires, the material that one once protected becomes open to the public. Material that is available in public domain can legally be copied, distributed and downloaded by anyone, anywhere, anytime. The majority of recent works are most likely protected currently under copyright laws.
Where Can I Go If I Still Want To Download?
Everyone on Earth needs some form of entertainment from time to time, and for most of us it is music, video games, television shows, movies, PC applications, etc. With the threat of lawsuits hanging over your head with each movie you download, where can you go to be sure that the material you are listening to, watching, playing and downloading is legal?
The truth is that you have a number of options, if you are still eager to build your collection by downloading movies from the Internet.
• You can search the Internet for sites that provide updated lists of websites, such as http://moviescapital.com/, where you can legally download, watch or burn to CD the files that you want for a minimal fee. Enjoy full-length movies without any commercials or spyware to worry you.
• A number of television networks offer full episodes their shows 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 regular 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, allowing you to watch the most recent episodes of your favorite Fox shows online for free.
• You can find full-length movies with expired copyrights and available to the public at Entertainment Magazine Online.
• If music is your thing, you can create a radio station of your own that only plays the genres and songs that you choose with limited commercial interruption for a limited time each month for free at Pandora Radio. You can create playlists and listen to your favorites at FineTune.
With so many options at your disposal, there is no need to go astray and risk serious fines or jail time by downloading movies files illegally.
The Serious Risks Of Sharing Movie Files
The holders of copyrights have ways of finding out which movie download files are being shared by your computer.
All they have to do is contact the authorities and send them your way because the law is in the favor of the copyright holder.
The RIAA sent letters to almost four hundred college 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 more than two thousand college students.
These students were required to pay an average of $3000 each, not including court costs and attorney fees.
The RIAA is not only targeting college students, this is just one example. It does not matter who you are, how old you are or where you live, if you download or share file on the Internet illegally you will be held accountable.
Even if you are a minor, do not think you can 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. With sites such as moviescapital.com offering fully licensed movie downloads, it is not worth the risk you take with any other method.
Do not be mistaken in thinking that legal action is the only danger to downloading files illegally from the Internet.
You may be one of the many who do not worry about being caught, but do not consider that hackers could be getting into your system and downloading your personal and confidential information and using it for a horde of malicious activities.
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 these shared folders become available to anyone who wants to steal or copy them.
Many programs do not even use specialized folders for sharing, instead they simply provide users access to each other's "Documents" folder.
This means that all of your Word documents, photos, banking software, and more could be 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 ways for hackers to spread their spyware and viruses all over the Internet.
All they have to do is create 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 critically infected computer.
Horror stories of what can happen to your computer when you use P2P file sharing programs are in abundance.
What You Should Do In order to avoid the serious consequences of downloading movies from the Internet, it is recommended that if you are using any P2P clients, you disable them immediately and remove their software from your computer.
A number of guides are available with instructions on disabling a peer-to-peer file sharing client and taking it off your machine. Simply type, "disable P2P" into your favorite search engine to find all the information you need.
The best way to avoid the consequences of illegal movie downloads is to sign up to a legal movie download website, such as moviescapital.com.
This website only charges a minimal one time fee, instead of the "per download" price that you pay from other legal websites.
Legal sites with movie downloads are growing more and more popular as people are becoming concerned with lawsuits, identity theft and computer damages.
These site offer faster movie download speeds than you will get 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 http://moviescapital.com/ you can watch immediately as they stream on your computer .
You can download them to your hard drive if you want to watch them later, or you can burn them to CD or DVD if you want to use an external player.
It is highly recommended that you use legal download sites to download movies from the Internet.
The subscription costs are cheap and the site is easy to use. Most importantly you are able to enjoy movies in peace without having to constantly look over your shoulder to make sure the MPAA, RIAA, FBI or a swam of hackers are not coming for you.
