Introduction
Piracy, be it in any form, is the unauthorized use or distribution of someone else’s work without their knowledge or consent for the same. In simpler words, piracy is nothing but illegal copying, plagiarising, copyright violation or theft of something belonging to another person. Piracy is carried out in different fields but the most common and dominant of them is Video Piracy. Video Piracy is the process in which a copyright policy of any audio or visual work that is produced or created is violated without the prior knowledge or consent of the copyright owner.
Only the copyright owners have the rights to own, reproduce, perform or distribute their created work. Apart from that, with their own will, they may give a written permission to certain vendors for doing the same on their behalf. Anyone other than being authorised to access the copyrighted work is considered to be carrying out Piracy of the content. People carry out Piracy for a number of reasons and motives. There are a number of online websites that provide services of pirated content and one of them is ‘7starhd’. Video Piracy is considered to be illegal and is a punishable offence with a fine and imprisonment charges.
About ‘7starhd’
7starhd is one the well known sites that is a platform that offers pirated movies in a number of languages to its audience. It was established around 10 years ago and has a massive audience around the globe. The visuals uploaded by the site not only include movies but also contain a number of TV series or web series that would ideally be available to officially watch by creating an account or paying the membership amount to watch them. The site makes it possible to download all those movies and videos for free. The visuals and movies available on this site include works from Bollywood, Hollywood, Tollywood, Japanese films, Korean films, Chinese films and works from some other film industries around the world as well.
The videos and movies available on 7starhd are available to be downloaded or streamed online. They are available along with the subtitles feature. They are also provided with a quality choice of streaming in 480p, 720p and 1080p. The videos and movies are also available to stream or download in a number of languages along with the movies dubbed in Hindi. The major feature of the 7starhd website is that it offers 300mb Mkv movies to be downloaded.
Movies Leaked by 7starhd website
As it is a global website and has a high number of audience, movies from all around the world are at risk of being leaked on this website. Recently bollywood movies and web series have been hit by the after effects of being leaked on this site. Some of the recent Bollywood movies that were leaked on 7starhd include Housefull 4, Chicchore, Kabir Singh, Super 30, War, Commando 3, Chhapak, Good Newz, Saaho, Baahubali, Baahubali 2.0, Bhaarat and many more. Apart from Bollywood, there were also a number of Hollywood like Avengers: Endgame and Tollywood movies, web series that were leaked on this site like Pressure Cooker, Kadaram Kondan, Madhuri Talkies, Detective Food Chain, Humen DartBoard and Adithya Varma to name a few. The recent leaks on this site from the year 2019 include Baaghi 3, Love Aaj Kal and Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan which were released in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu and Malayalam languages and were available to be streamed in 360p, 480p and 720p formats.
7starhd in India
Indian government has taken action against such websites and as a result of that have banned many domains that support the practice of piracy. 7starhd had a number of domains to operate from and the Indian government had banned its original domain. However, there are a number of the company’s other domains that are still active and in use. Some of them are as follows.
7starhd.wine
7starhd.bar
7starhd.biz
7starhd.win
7starhd.me
7starhd.live
7starhd.mobi
7starhd.fun
7starhd.run
7starhd.any
7starhd.co.in
7starhd.com
7starhd.online
7starhd.in
7starhd.maza
7starhd1.com (Active)
Out of all the mentioned domains, 7starhd1.com is the active and functioning one.
List of similar websites like 7starhd movie download site
There are a number of other websites available that provide similar services. TamilRockers is the most well known amongst them. They have been responsible for pirating a number of big budget films and releasing them online just a day or two prior to their release. The other available websites do provide dual audio and 300Mb movies. They include KatmovieHD, DownloadHub, Movierulz, 9xmovies, Extramovies, Hdmovieshub, Tamilyogi, Worldfree4u, FMovies, 123movies, Khatrimaza and HDmovieshub.
What is the government doing to stop piracy?
The Government of India as well as the other governments around the world have imposed some laws and regulations against video piracy. Recently in India, the government approved the proposal of introducing the Cinematograph Amendment Bill, 2019, and also took the decision of amending the Cinematograph Act, 1952 which makes provision to certify cinematographed films for their exhibition and regulation.
According to the piracy law in India, if it is proven in court that a person knowingly infringed or violated the copyright policy of the content available then the person in question would be considered guilty and the act would be considered as a criminal act. Piracy is a punishable offence in India and recently under the Copyright Act, the Bombay High Court has ordered a ban on around 134 links and URLs with a fine of Rs. 3 Lacs and imprisonment of upto 3 years for anyone who violates the set regulations. When an individual is charged with piracy allegations for the first time then a jail time of 6 months to 3 years needs to be served along with a payment of 50,000 to 200,000 rupees in fine. If the same individual is caught taking part in piracy again then the sentence may be increased to 1 to 3 years for the second offense along with a fine payment of 100,000 to 200,000.
What will happen if I download movies illegally in India?
Streaming or Downloading pirated movies is illegal and not a right thing to do. However, in India, one of the major reasons for people watching or downloading films online instead of going to a movie theatre or buying a DVD is that it is easier and more convenient to watch and download films online. It is free of cost which makes it affordable by just anyone, irrespective of their income wages. Not every person in India can afford going to a multiplex to watch each and every movie that releases almost every week in India.
Moreover, it is economically not possible for everyone to afford online web services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hotstar, ALT Balaji, Zee Cinema, etc. In order to watch the shows or series available on these platforms, without having to pay any membership amount, people opt to watch movies and series online.
Every person using the online portal for streaming or downloading purposes may or may not be aware of the fact that it is illegal and a punishable offence. People are usually just ecstatic about having access to free of cost resources and do not think about its origin or the way in which those resources are obtained.
However, the use of online available web portals also depends on which portal a person is using. Some web portals have the license to freely stream and download the original copyrighter’s work. Major amounts of content on such sites is covered with a copyright policy and unauthorised download may still be considered as a copyright violation.
Also, the streaming or the downloading process from such sites is not an easy task. In order to earn more money, the website is linked to a number of directed pages, ads and pop-ups. These additional pages not only waste a person’s time by redirecting them to other pages that they are not interested in but also put them at a risk of contracting any unknown virus from these sites. These directed pages, ads and pop-ups are approved and put up by the owners of the website so that they can earn more in a way.
How can you stop digital piracy?
Digital Piracy is a concern for filmmakers, producers, cinematographers, distributors and anyone as a matter of fact who is working in the digitally entertaining field. It adversely affects the films collection at the box office and causes loss to the producers and service providers. Film piracy has become a major issue for the film industry. This piracy was aggregated especially after the internet was introduced.
Different governments of the world may have a different approach and solution to this global problem of digital piracy. However, there are some common ways in which digital piracy can be stopped and prevented for good. Some of them are as follows.
Identifying Pirate Downloaders:-
If the source of piracy is identified, then the distribution of pirated content can be prevented or reduced to a great extent. It is important to deal with the pirate downloaders in a particular way to ensure that they do not carry out the act of piracy again. This includes a number of steps to be performed; and include identification of infringing content, identifying the downloader, contacting the downloader and threatening legal action. If it still doesn’t work then another resort is to drive the downloader to legitimate distribution channels.
Sharing Platforms:-
Platforms offer a visiting space for people who want to download or stream a movie. If the platforms aren’t available anymore or if they aren’t functional, then there would not be a place on the Internet to host all the pirated content. People won’t be able to access, view or download any of the content either.
Pirate Uploaders:-
Piracy can occur due to sheer negligence as well. Sometimes, the phenomenon of piracy can occur with content distributors too. Pirate Uploaders are the people having access and authority to the content. However, they upload that authorized content on pirated platforms from a point of view of making some extra money. It is important to provide authorized legal access and distribution rights to trusted service providers only.
Legal Enforcement:-
In order to curb the piracy issue or in order to stop it from occurring at all, it is important to induce some strict laws and regulations for its offenders. It is also considered to be the best that any pirated content gets removed from the Internet and it becomes inaccessible to anyone visiting the platforms or website that offers these kinds of services.
Technology and Operations:-
It is another way to counteract and reduce the effects and reach of a pirated content or website. By using Technological Operations, the technical intervention helps to identify pirated content, live stream, etc. It needs a number of operations to be carried out at the same time or one behind the other. By using the technology, the pirate downloaders and pirate uploaders, preferred sites for download or upload can be determined and stopped from carrying out the operation of spreading the piracted network even further.
Barriers to Entry:-
It is a traditional but simple way of avoiding digital piracy. If there are restrictions put in certain places, before the film is released, then there may be a chance to stop or prevent video piracy after all.
Conclusion
Video Piracy or any type of piracy is an act of theft and invasion without any consent; verbal or written. It is not appreciated or supported by the Government of India or of the other countries. We do not recommend piracy nor we support Piracy. It is a punishable offence with strict measures and sentences and should not be encouraged or supported in any way.
Therefore, in order to stay away from trouble and legal issues, it is always advisable to opt for legal ways to watch movies. Either go to the movie hall to watch movies, buy movies in digital format online, movie physical DVDs and CDs, Rent movies online on different platforms and many more. Watching or downloading movies from reputed and authorized sources saves you from any kind of legal action as well as helps the film industry to bloom.
