How to Download Free Online Movies Legally - By: Pete Nisbet

Anybody interested in finding out how to download free online movies should be aware of the fact that very little worth having online is free, and that movies are not included in that 'very little'. Sure, you can download movies online, but not free.

At the least you will have to pay a lifetime fee for use of the software that enables you to download movies, and in some cases this fee could be a monthly subscription or even just an annual fee. However, if you must pay then a lifetime fee is the best option. It means you can download free online movies for life.

It is generally illegal to do so however, unless the movies are free of copyright and in the public domain. At one time this was 50 years after release, but it has just been extended at the behest of the movie-makers to 60 years. So it is now legal to download movies made in from 1951 backwards.

The same is true of music. You can download free online music as long as it has been at least 60 years since the death of the writer of the music or song - after that period it is in the public domain.

It is also legal to download movies or music that is not protected by copyright, or for which the breach of copyright will not be pursued by the owner. This frequently occurs when young artists or movie makers want to distribute their work freely around the internet using p2p or file sharing software. This gets their name known, and enables them to get some great free advertising that could result in fans flocking to the music stores for their albums or queuing up to watch their movies.

In many instances the law is broken when people listen to a track in a specific album prior to deciding to buy it. They then go on to purchase the album, so where is the fault in that? None really, although there is a problem with those that make thousands upon thousands of copies of movies and music albums, burn them to DVD and then sell them from profit.

This is particularly rife in Asia, particularly China and Taiwan, and these are the people that the music and movie studios should be pursuing, not kids who are copying one or two files for their personal use. Nevertheless, it must be understood that to download free movies in any form that are copyright-protected is not legal, and you could be fined for doing so.

In fact, the movie companies have successfully taken a case against Limewire, one of the more commonly used file sharing systems that use the Gnutella open source peer to peer file sharing software system. There are many others of course, and there are also several legal downloading sites that sell downloads either of public domain movies or videos that have been pre-approved for general release by membership sites.

Some of these are hard video stores that operate online, but post the videos to you on a rental basis, while others allow online downloads of videos from a vast library of modern movies approved for this purpose. Still others enable you to download movies that have been shown on TV: what is the difference between downloading a movie from TV that is still copyright protected and downloading the same movie through file sharing? None that I can see. Answers on a postcard. . .

About the Author

More information on file sharing and how to download free online movies legally is available from Online Free Movies while information on other forms of legal downloads and video rental can be found on Legal P2P Sites.

Article Directory Source: http://www.articlerich.com/profile/Pete-Nisbet/37304

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