More and more people are downloading movies, games, music, and other such media files every day over the internet. Movie downloads especially, are getting more popular as less movie enthusiasts want to deal with the inconvenience of movie rental stores. The freedom of being able to find virtually any movie, download it, and watch it whenever you wish is a very enticing proposition. Because this is becoming such a popular practice, there are many people who are interested but still have some unanswered questions. So, I would like to do a quick F.A.Q. on the subject of downloading movies online.
Is it legal to download movies over the internet? This can really depend of a number of things, especially what and where you download from. There are many illegal, pirated movie files floating around the internet, and they are not all that difficult to find if you are looking for them. Still, there are tons of places where you can find and download movies legitimately and legally. These places, however, do typically charge some sort of fee for their services.
How do movie download sites work? Pretty much all of them work on the same principal, which is essentially a large P2P filesharing network, very similar to how NAPSTER works. Rather than storing the actual movie files on their server, and having people download directly from them (which takes up tons of space and eats up tons of bandwidth), they use Peer to Peer (P2P) software to allow people to download files from other people who have what they are looking for. The larger the network, the easier it is to find what you’re looking for, and the faster your download will be (since you are downloading from multiple sources at once).
Is this dangerous? Will I get computer viruses doing this? Unfortunately, there is always a real risk of catching computer viruses when downloading files off the internet. Most of the time, downloading from paid membership sites is safe, because they remove files reported and found to be infected or corrupt. In fact, this is usually what you are paying for when you sign up to one of these sites, as most of your money is going towards maintaining their network and directories, and paying for technical and customer support. The actual downloading software is typically free.
Always make sure you have up to date virus protection software, especially if you decide to download from free sources. There are many free anti-virus programs out there if you don’t have one. I’ve been using one from Avast lately and have found it to be pretty good overall. You can get it for free
How long does it normally take to download an entire movie? This can depend on a few factors, including your internet connection, the size of the file, and how many people in the network are sharing that file. Typically, on a 56.6 Kbps modem, a 3 MB file takes about 7 minutes. With a fast connection, and a fair amount of “seeders,” an entire movie can be downloaded in a matter of hours. Many movie files are around 700 MB or so. I usually just set my movies to download overnight while I sleep.
How much do these sites cost? Most have varying membership plans, including 1 year memberships, 2 year memberships, and even lifetime memberships. Some sites will allow you to download an unlimited amount of movies for a lifetime for under $40.00. These sites also include video game files, mp3 music files, television shows and more.
For additional information, as well as recommended download sites, please visit my blog, The Digiproduct Reviews.