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Cinema and movies consist of a sizable portion of the entertainment industry. It is through movies that we escape into a new world which is based on fiction and wonder. However, the plague of piracy has long haunted the entertainment industry of India in particular. Artists fail to get recognition and earn a substantial amount due to the existence of such fraudulent activities.
Movies have become an inherent part of our lives. But are we acting like a worthy audience who deserve someone’s backbreaking efforts? Are our role models getting rewards that they deserve? The answer is definitely a big NO. The reason being the illegal downloading of the movies, which is known as piracy. Piracy is causing devastating damage to the film industries. Piracy is discouraging the filmmakers from producing films.
The issue of piracy has devastated the entire entertainment industry and the global filmmaking sector in particular. Artists are struggling to fulfill requirements as the rightful income which they are supposed to receive is not being transpired duly primarily due to the issues related to piracy. These movies are leaked within a few days of their release, reducing the box office collection by a dramatic amount. Hence, piracy should be discouraged at every step and motivate our icons for making more and more movies to give us an entertaining time at the cinema halls. In order to support and instill confidence in the minds of creative content creators through cinema, the issues related to piracy must be resolved with immediate effect.
About 123movies
123movies is one of the most popular websites for watching and downloading the latest movies and series. The site is completely free. It is an illegal website and promotes the downloading of pirated content in the website you can find options of 480p SP to 1080p full HD print, This site provides you an incentive to watch and download the latest Hollywood and Bollywood movies and episodes in some time of their release. The downloading is an extremely fast and negligible amount of buffering. But there are also some issues of blocking. Some other famous sites like 123moviesgo and gomovies123 were blocked by the government and hence, these websites no longer exist. 123movies is an upgraded website of the previous sites.
The site is an illegal platform for watching and downloading movies. Owning a copy of any such movie, without authorization, is a punishable offense and may lead to several consequences. The government is continuously trying to find such websites and ban them to stop piracy of movies, which is itself a tricky task. People use VPNs for accessing these websites because of which the government can’t track them. Similar is the case with the hosts who change the domain extensions of the websites.
Movies leaked by 123movies
In 2020, 123movies leaked several blockbuster hits within a few days of their release. The site is able to provide links for downloading some of the blockbuster hits. Some of these hits include Pati Patni Aur Woh, Marjaavan, Dream Girl, Brahmastra, Super 30, Conflict, Bala, Saand Ki Aankh, Pagalpanti, Dil Bechara and Panipat. These movies had a great box office collection and hence, were downloaded in large numbers in pirated forms. These movies were sold by the vendors in CDs in large numbers. Streaming or downloading these movies from the website is a punishable offense and can lead to prosecution.
123movies in India
123movies is an illegal website, accessing which is a punishable offense. The government of India is constantly trying to find out other such websites. In fact, the government has already banned 123movies’ previous domains like 123moviesgo and gomovies123. Piracy is a crime according to the laws and streaming or downloading content from these websites may create chaos for you. Hence, the government has strict rules against accessing pirated websites.
List of similar websites like 123movies movie download website
In addition to 123movies, there are many other websites promoting the downloading of pirated content. But finding an exact link to these websites is very difficult because their URLs never remain the same. Examples of some other similar websites like 123movies movie download websites are:
· Jiorockers
· Filmywap
· Worldfree4u
· Gomovies
· Tamilrockers
· Moviesda
· Movierulz
Providing an exact URL for these websites isn’t possible because we don’t promote piracy.
What is the government doing to stop piracy?
The government is putting backbreaking efforts to stop piracy as much as possible since piracy has become a big threat to the film industry. Hence, the government and judiciary implement laws to eradicate piracy from the country. The news of banning 134 websites by the Supreme Court and 1110 websites by the High Court is a testimony of the government’s efforts, sternness, and concern about this menace in the country and its effects on the industry. The number of banned websites would have reached over 800 but the court wanted the exact figures.
What will happen if I download movies illegally in India?
Piracy is seen as a big crime in the eyes of the law. Eradicating it from the country is a big challenge that the country is facing currently. Digital piracy is causing big damage to the film industry and hence, the government and the judiciary are trying to curb this menace through its laws and stern penal code.
The fight against digital piracy is led through a well-defined penal code in the country. Under the sections 63, 63A, 65 and 65A of the Copyrights Act 1957, viewing, reproducing or owning an unauthorized copy of a movie or any other digital content from an illegal website is a punishable offense. According to the penal code against piracy, a person committing any kind of digital piracy is subject to an imprisonment of 6 months to 3 years or a fine of Rs.50,000 to Rs.2,00,000 or both. The duration of the sentence and the amount of the fine will depend upon the type and extent of the crime committed. If the person is held guilty for committing the same crime again, he/she can be sentenced for 1 to 3 years or a fine of Rs. 1,00,000 to Rs. 2,00,000 or both.
Though there are well-defined laws for committing a crime like piracy, there haven’t been many cases of imprisonment. Till now, not many cases have been registered where a person is sentenced or fined for downloading a movie from a pirated website. Generally, through the copyrights, the copyright owner in the movie tends to get the site blocked through a take-down notice of the court. The copyrights give the copyright owner of the country the sole ownership of the copyright content and hence, he has the authority to sue a person/organization for unauthorized downloading or reproduction of the copyright content. The crime has been committed on a dramatic number and hence, punishing every downloader or viewer isn’t possible.
Another type of digital piracy crime which is very popularly committed is Camcorder Piracy. Camcorder piracy refers to a kind of piracy where the pirate records a movie while watching it in the theater and then circulates the copy. The device used for recording the movie inside the cinema hall is known as a Camcorder. But Camcorder piracy is not confined to camcorders only. Recording through any device is a mobile phone or a camera is considered as Camcorder Piracy. The print of such pirated content is of low quality, known as ‘Cam Print’. You can hear the audience shouting in the theater! A person held guilty for Camcorder Piracy can be sentenced for 3 years or a fine up to Rs. 10 lakh or both. The extent of punishment can also hold the downloaders of the content under prosecution.
The government takes help from the local ISPs to fight against piracy. Since, the crime of piracy is committed at a very large scale involving millions of downloaders and pirates, taking every pirate and downloader under prosecution is not feasible. Hence, resorting to local ISPs would be the best alternative. The government, with the help of the ISPs, blocks these websites promoting piracy. In addition to this, the ISPs also send a stern warning to the downloaders for accessing such websites. But this is still a challenge because of the continuous renewal of the URLs by these websites and the use of VPNs by the downloaders.
There are several markets where vendors are selling pirated movies in CDs and hard drives. These markets are a hub for getting the latest movies at the cheapest rates. Not only movies, but these markets are also very popular for games, songs, and other pirated content. These vendors sell these CDs at very cheap prices, which is the main reason for their popularity. The police try hard to stop these vendors from selling these CDs but fail miserably.
How can you stop digital piracy?
Stopping digital piracy has become a need of the hour. Piracy is causing huge damage to the film industry. The damage has touched figures around USD 100 million, which is a dramatic amount. Seeing such a large figure, all of us, being citizens or the government, should try our best to curb this problem as soon as possible before it becomes a reason for discouragement for the filmmakers to make a new movie.
A rational individual does something if he/she sees a benefit in it, being economical or emotional. A way to stop piracy is to remove these incentives from the websites. What are the incentives for browsing such websites? The reasons behind accessing these websites are that they’re economical, provide the latest content and can be accessed from anywhere. If such incentives could be provided legally, people would stop browsing these pirated websites and hence, piracy would be reduced by some good numbers. To resolve this, websites/apps like Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hotstar, and others come into the picture. These websites provide the same incentives as a pirated website. For example, Amazon Prime started its membership from a yearly membership of Rs.999.
According to a study, most of the people in India don’t know that downloading a movie from a website is a crime. Hence, piracy is still an untaught section in India. Hence, educating and making people aware of this crime of digital piracy can be very effective. If people will get to know about the punishment and consequences of accessing an illegal website, many people would back off from using these websites. Accessing these websites is also morally wrong. The key source of revenue for these sites is the advertisements. If we stop accessing these websites, they won’t earn any revenue and stop operating.
Another way of stopping piracy is by creating barriers to the entry of these websites. This can be done through strict monitoring by the ISPs and blocking the access of these websites and sending warning alerts to the downloaders. The ISPs ban these websites to stop piracy.
Also, the team staff should be loyal to the filmmakers. Sometimes, the crew team members themselves leak a copy of the movie to the pirates, just for a pity amount. There should be complete loyalty towards the team. Also, the filmmakers should keep tight security and accomplish all the procedures efficiently to ensure the complete safety of the digital content and prevent any piracy by any team member.
Conclusion
Movies are an inherent part of life. Please do not be discouraged from making movies by downloading them from a pirated website. The price we pay for the tickets at the cinema hall is the price we pay for their back-breaking efforts. We should try and also make others aware not to promote any kind of piracy and motivate our heroes to entertain us like this only. Moreover, as an audience it is our responsibility to pay for the content which we wish to avail. Piracy is a form of corruption and is a fraudulent act which must be stopped to ensure that the creative content creators work within a safe environment.