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The first few sites in our list above are totally free because they're public domain films, and the others don't have any legal concerns because of the agreements those companies have with the studios that produced the movies they're letting you download. If a movie isn't in the public domain, or the creator hasn't given permission for their movie to be shared this way, then it's not yours to keep. This is how most movie torrent sites work.
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Movies obtained that way are almost always rips of Blu-rays or DVDs, meaning that a random person is simply sharing their purchased (or rented, or filmed) movie with the world.
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Usually, the films you can get on those sites were released this year, and some are even still in theaters! That's the first red flag that the website isn't complying with most copyright laws. The top sites people are visiting for movie downloads often don't deliver on the 'download' part and instead let you stream movies ( here's the difference), but they still shouldn't.
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