Watching Online Movies: Ever Thought It’s Legal Or Not?

Our era is full of people who are addicted with entertainment; people need entertainment in every phase of their life. However, grabbing this is an easy job now. From Online movies to shows, videos, series etc. all are easily available for the audience that has access to the internet.
When we talk about online movies, it basically means watching movies online on some website or app. This has definitely helped a lot of fans and has enabled them to watch their favourite movies which they have missed without paying for it. But have you ever thought that is it legal or not?
Let’s see what does our law says about this:
PIRACY IS A BIG ‘NO’
When it comes to Indian movies industry, more than 1000 movies are released worldwide and our Bollywood earns annual revenue of approx.
According to a survey, India ranks no.4 for online movies piracy.
Piracy not only brings a loss situation to the owners but also to people who legally buy the copyright of that movie. One incident regarding the same happened in Kerala where around 1000 people were arrested for illegally downloading and uploading a movie online.
COPYRIGHT LAW PLAYS A PIVOTAL ROLE
There are many popular movie streaming options available with the audiences where one can conveniently watch his/her favourite movies legally. Every movie is protected by copyright law. The copyright law protects all kind of literary, artistic, musical etc. work so that no one can earn profit from it without the consent of the owner.
The increasing rates in the online movies piracy has compelled the government of India and has helped in revolutionising the copyright laws in the country. Several amendments are made to this law for the same.
Although till now no such case has been filed for streaming movies online but downloading them is illegal. However one can also not neglect the fact that technically we come under the illegal copyright issue when we stream movies online as our computer tends to make a temporary copy of that file in the computer’s memory.
A recent example of this lasts with the makers of ‘Udta punjab’, the movies got leaked before its release. It was distributed illegally on different websites, which was the direct violation of copyright law. The police arrested the man behind this and he was given 3 years imprisonment for the same by Bombay High Court.
With all these various laws and incidents it’s clear that watching online movies can be legal and illegal both. It depends on the user that which medium he/she uses to enjoy them. Online movies have surely made our entertainment easier and cheaper, now it’s our common sense that how we move along with this.

By: Prerana Sharma
Content: http://www.businessworld.in/article/Online-Piracy-Things-You-Need-To-Know/06-07-2018-154163/