Patti, when you say charged for it, you mean they got arrested and fined, right?

Anything with a copyright is protected and unless the originator is giving it out for free, then downloading it without paying from any other source is piracy.

Movies aren't any different than music.

Google illegal downloading movies.

Motion Picture Association on Piracy

Here is a link that might be useful: Students Warned about illegal music, movie downloads

How do they get by with these huge websites? Why don't they crack down on the ones running these websites?

They are cracking down bigtime, but it's a global problem.

A lot of these websites are hosted in Asia where it's more difficult to enforce copyrights.

And you need to closely examine the terms of usage - some of these websites put language into their TOS that says sharing copyrighted movies and music is illegal. That means they are off the hook if one of their users gets caught. The user gets prosecuted, but the website doesn't. Read the TOS for Limewire and Kazaa!

Students are a big problem (as in the link above) - they just aren't sensitized to taking intellectual property as being theft. You can see that universities and colleges are taking measures to curtail piracy.

Producers are trying to eliminate piracy at the source as well. For example people aren't allowed to carry cameras into movie theaters. I remember one news report about a man that was arrested with a camera in his belt buckle! They are also implementing rigid security in the print labs, where one lost print can mean a million pirated DVDs on the market.

Producers have also gone to a same day, same date opening for big movies. That means it opens around the world on the same day instead of rolling an opening out on different days for different continents. That stops someone from pirating a movie in the US and selling illegal DVDs in other countries where the movie hasn't opened yet.

Anything that is copyrighted is protected by law. "Free" downloads should always be examined carefully.

Many 'free' sites are also sources of viruses and spyware (spyware reads information off your computer)! Be very cautious about accessing these sites because you may be downloading lots more than just a movie.

There is no downloading of movies..just watching online...

but still....

I think legal streaming of movies usually cost money, but yes, there are many places online that will show them to you free. Legal? Probably not -- due to copyright infringements --- but many laws need to still to be written for the internet (so who really knows?). And, as someone mentioned, the sites may be able to get away with it because they personally aren't the ones watching the movies, you are. They put something out and you steal it --who gets in trouble?

I'd go with there's no such thing as a free lunch. If they are new to theater releases, you gotta know you shouldn't be watching them for free (so I doubt that defense would hold up in court). And, I know it's tempting, but it just smells wrong. Just because you can take something for free, doesn't necessarily mean you should. -Make it a Blockbuster night.

whether you can get in trouble for viewing depends on the source of the material and your ISP. people outside of this country, esp asia as mentioned, put everything and anything you can imagine, up for free. you can view or download it at your own risk. how do you get caught?? your ISP monitors all content going back & forth and depending on the volumne & type can warn you or drop you. they all monitor everyone, even when they are as big as brighthouse/road runner.

BTW the college kids thing is different. colleges provide internet to students who sign a 'contract/agreement' essentially saying they will not do anything illegal while using the university provided service. colleges receive millions or probably close to billions of $$ of free software/hardware & services from internet and puter companies and they themselves are requirred by the providers of all this free stuff to have these agreements w/ students inorder to receive aid. it basically boils down to students are not paying for this stuff and they then break the agreement and the college has the right to fine them or expell them, very fair IMO. ~ liz