Legal Movie Downloads - Why and Where?

The Internet offers many types of media downloads, including movies, music, books, and a variety of other types. Many movie lovers often wonder which movie sites offer legal downloads.

Many sites fail to mention whether or not it is legal to their download movies. Some insist that it is legal for them not to provide users with such information. One may wonder why a site offering legal movie downloads would have a problem informing users that their services are indeed legal.

Be cautious when using a site that uses file-sharing networks. Many of these sites appear very professional with their impressive graphics, but this may be to deceive users. These peer-to-peer networking sites can't guarantee that a movie you download will be legal. It's much safer to download movies from reliable US corporations such as Real Networks or from movie studio sites, such as MGM or Fox.

Is it possible for legal movie downloads to be reasonably priced? If the practice of downloading legal movies had better video and audio quality, lower prices, and were supported by more people, they may become more commonplace. Downloading movies legally would make the experience much better.

The 6 Top Reasons for Downloading Movies Legally:

1. Bootlegs Equal Poor Quality Any movie that has been legally downloaded is always of better quality than those offered by bootleggers. Bootleg downloads will only be able to provide poor quality DVDs or video cassettes. Viewing movies illegally recorded by a bootlegger is a horrible experience. Squinting your eyes in an effort to make our the picture is not uncommon. Figures in the movie may be fuzzy and appear dark. Sometimes it is difficult to follow the movie script because of the poor quality.
2. High-Quality Movie Downloads Cutting-edge technology will always accompany a dependable movie downloading site. Viewing a movie downloaded from these sites will be almost the same as watching an actual DVD on your television. High-quality is ensured by the major movie studios supporting the site.
3. No Prosecution by Authorities Many people who download movies illegally do not believe they will be caught by authorities. Someone may successfully download illegal movies for a short time, but eventually they will be tracked to their Internet Service Provider. Severe penalties can be the result of illegally downloading movies. Downloading a movie illegally is not worth the consequences.
4. Legal Download Costs Increase Due to Piracy Anytime you download a movie illegally, you are raising the cost of legal movie downloads. People who legally download movies should not have to pay more because of illegal downloaders.
5. Enjoy the Privacy of Watching in Your Own Home Going to the neighborhood movie theater after a hard day at work is not very relaxing. The last thing you want to do is fight traffic and stand in line waiting for a ticket to a movie.
6. Eliminate Fuel Costs by Viewing at Home By downloading and watching a movie at home you are not spending money on gas. It would be much more relaxing if you spent the evening watching a romantic comedy or thriller with your spouse giving you a gentle massage.

Downloading a legal movie from the Internet is much simpler and safer than obtaining a low-quality bootleg copy. Avoid the hassle and outrageous costs of going to the theater. Enjoying a movie legally downloaded from a dependable and legitimate site is a much better alternative.

There is a proliferation of websites offering movie downloads. The problem is that not all of them are legal. With the technology available to the computer savvy tech of today, it is very easy to get caught up in illegal movie downloads. The thrill of downloading a movie illegally can be a high for some. But the risk is not worth the trouble you could get into. Eventually, you will get caught. Don't forget, there is nothing you can do on a computer that can't be traced.

The not so savvy computer tech wannabe can end up downloading illegal movies and not even realize it. You may get on a site that claims the downloads are legal, when they are, in fact, illegal. If you don't want to risk prosecution, research the sites you want to use. It really isn't that hard to determine if you are on a site that actually offers legal downloads. Common sense is your best weapon against movie piracy.

How can you know for sure if the site you are on is legal? The are a few signs to look for:

1. While there are some free sites for legal movie downloads, look for the sites that are professionally done. Most of those sites will charge a fee. After all, everyone knows you really do get what you pay for.
2. Look for the larger U.S. company sites. Sometimes you can find some free movie downloads on those sites, although, most require you to buy the download. The smaller offshore sites will usually be low quality downloads, but even some of them are worth seeing. Those are usually not mainstream movies.

When you find a professional movie download site, you can expect the navigation to be easy to use and the downloads will almost always be of good quality. The payment options will be either monthly or yearly. You may have the option of renting or buying the movie. When buying, you will have the option of downloading to computer or burning it to DVD. Burning a movie to DVD is the better choice. The DVD will last many years longer than downloading to computer and the quality will be better. It also saves on computer memory. Renting a legal movie will be the least expensive option of viewing. But you'll only get it for one day (24hrs.)

After weighing all the pros and cons, it is better to deal with the websites that offer legal movie downloads. Not only will you get a better quality movie for your money, you will also not risk running afoul of the law. Another thing to remember is that many of the illegal sites are saturated with viruses, spyware and adware, which will cause a lot of problems with your computer. The sites offering legal movie downloads take great pains to keep their sites free of anything that would harm your computer.

Illegal torrent websites exhibit carelessness by not closely monitoring who uploads or downloads files. In fact, often, users and sometimes "bot" programs upload dangerous content in order to try to fool users into downloading the files.

What seems to be the latest blockbuster can in fact be something called a "keylogging trojan" that will attempt to hijack your personal information - possibly including bank and credit card data. The people who end up as victims usually don't know that they are in trouble - at least, until it is far too late. The trojans that have been downloaded exist deep within your files; you must execute one of these files, at which point it will infect your entire computer.

If you're in "luck", you will simply have downloaded "spyware" - software that websites use to track their hits and send ads to you; but sometimes, you will find that your virtual identity will be hijacked, leading to the loss of your password and the loss of countless dollars. The best thing to do is to eliminate the threat by protecting your computer and yourself and trying to avoid unmonitored, unregulated websites.

Thanks to the vast amount of different technologies available today, there are no 'limits' when it comes to downloading movies. What hasn't changed however are the risks of illegal downloading as it can get you in a lot of trouble. Unfortunately, there are thousands of websites that offer illegal movie downloads, music, and software. The first questions asked in the comment sections of these sites are usually “how is the quality?” or “is this a shaky cam recording” or for software “is this clean/legit” referring to whether or not the download contains a virus.

Sadly so, there are also hundreds of websites, lots of them all owned by the same company, that claim 'legit downloads', then charge you a $20 to $40 one-time fee only to give you access to some publicly free available software that lets you search through archives of ILLEGAL content and download this content with a torrent client. A torrent by the way is a type of file that instructs a client to download its content through a peer-to-peer network.

So the real question is, how do you know if the site you're using is legal or illegal?

First off, legal downloads are generally NOT free. There are certain exceptions such sites that allow you to download independent film maker's work or other 'unknown' movies. Generally though, if you the latest action movie that just hit the theater or just came out on DVD offer on a site and it won't cost you a penny to download it, it's 99.9% certain it's an illegal download.

If you're being asked to pay a one-time fee for 'full access', that's another sign that something's not right. That's like a movie theater telling you to pay $500 in exchange to watch unlimited movies for the rest of your life, now there isn't a movie theater in the world that's crazy enough to do that. Likewise, this doesn't work for an online movie download business either as they would have to pay the companies that own the rights to the movie you're downloading, and it's simply not possible to pay those kind of fees while offering your users unlimited lifetime access.

What is legit however are the sites that:

• Charge a monthly or a per-movie fee and;
• Are owned by a major (usually) US corporation.

You've probably heard of the following companies – which is another indicator that they're legal – these companies offer LEGAL MOVIE DOWNLOADS for a fee.

• Blockbuster – Not just a video store, they also have a 'download-to-rent' feature on their site where you can download a movie for a few dollars instead of having to drive to the video store. No worries about late fees either :)

• Cinemanow – This site is owned by several major film studios and offers monthly membership fees as well as per-movie download charges. The site however is rather expensive compared to alternatives but it is one of the few sites that is available to non-US residents.

• Real Network's Superpass – Real is a company that has been around since the early days of the web. They offer a monthly fee membership to download movies. The movies however are mostly older movies or otherwise not well known movies. For movie lovers this would definitely be worth a try (14-day free trial) but the average Joe will be disappointed to find there are no major blockbuster titles to be found on this site.

• Netflix – This is my personal favorite. Most of you have probably heard of Netflix – they're a company that mails you DVD's and you mail em back when you've finished watching them. You only pay a low monthly membership fee and you don't have to pay stamps or postage all the time either.
  Recently, Netflix added a new feature to all their memberships and it allows you to download a large number of movies to your computer or laptop. It gets better however, you can also send the movie straight from Netflix' website onto your TiVo, Xbox 360, and various other supported DVR and Media devices.

The bottom line is that in the end it's best to stick to sites that offer LEGAL movie downloads. You'll get the best available quality, no risk fo adware, spyware, virus or other nastiness, you get the best technology (such as being able to send your movie to your Xbox 360, TiVo, etc., and best of all you're acting within the law instead of breaking it. How would you feel if you work all day, then at the end of the day someone takes your paperwork or computer to your boss and says it's his/her work and she gets paid for it instead of you. That's right, you got robbed. And robbing is exactly what YOU are doing when you're downloading movies illegally.