Movie Download FAQ

by Andrew Castlewood

Many people are downloading films and movies of all types - Bollywood movies are becoming very popular in the UK, after Shilpa Shetty appeared on Big Brother. The movie download option is especially getting more popular as less movie goers want to deal with the hassle of renting movies from stores. It is great to be able to find almost any movie then download it, and watch it whenever you want.

For the beginner there are lots of questions about movie downloads - so here are some basic FAQs.

Is it illegal to download movies from the internet? Downloading any copyrighted file is of course illegal - so pirate DVDs, ripped DVDs, bootleg DVDs, call them what you like are lillegal - you are breaking the intellectual property rights of the copyright holder.  However there are many of these movies available to download freely on the interenet - and you do so at your own risk. The good news is that there are thousands of sites where you can locate and download movies legally and legitimately . Often there is a modest charge for providing access to the software that you need and providing technical support, but the movies themselves are free.

How do movie download sites work? Basically they all work in the same way - this is by a peer to peer (P2P) filesharing network, bascially a copy of how the famous NAPSTER works. However they don't store the files all on one server - it would be massive - people download directly from each others pc.  The way to find what you want then is to join a large filesharing network so that you have access to plenty of movies to download for free. Also because there are lots of computers form which you can download the same thing, it is faster and more reliable.

Is it safe? Can I get trojans and viruses doing this? In short, YES to both questions!  It is safe if you do it properly, but if you don't then yes you can download viruses and trojans by mistake. By paying for a membership site, such as imoviedownload most of the bad and infected files get eliminated by other users reporting them.  This is why paying for a site is a good idea. Plus you should take proper precautions - so get a copy of PCSafety101 and learn what you need to know to keep safe.

How long does it take to download a full length DVD? This depends on a seferal things, such as your internet connection speed (broadband really is the way to go here!), the size of the DVD file, and how many other people are accessing that DVD movie file at the same time. So typically, on a 56.6 Kbps connection, a 3 MB file should take about 7 minutes. With a fast broadband connection, and a fair number of "seeders," an entire DVD movie can download in a few hours. Many DVD movie files are about 700 MB - so just set your movies to download overnight.

How much do DVD movie download sites cost? Most membership site give different plans, from a 1 year membership thro' to a lifetime membership. Most of the sites on WhatMovieDownload.com let you download unlimited DVD movies for ever for under $40.00!