According to the Motion Picture Association of America, the most common form of movie piracy begins with someone sitting in a movie theater and surreptitiously pointing a digital video recorder at the screen as the movie plays. While the video might be shaky and the audio may be garbled, illegally recorded movies make up the majority of first-run movies illegally downloaded on the Internet, making it a huge problem for the entertainment industry. Penalties can range from a misdemeanor offense plus a fine and jail time, to a felony offense with a stiff prison sentence.
While it is legal to purchase a movie on DVD from a legitimate business for personal use, it is illegal to purchase unauthorized copies of those movies. Since copyright laws and their enforcement are different in every country, bootlegged movies can often be purchased right on the street all over the world, with none of the profits ever finding their way back to the owner of the copyright. Converting these illegally-copied DVDs to computer files that can be uploaded to online networks and downloaded by other users is illegal and punishable by law.
People have been making copies of their favorite movies and television shows since the advent of the VCR in the 1970s, and doing so for personal use is still perfectly legal. However, offering copies for trade or sale is illegal, as is posting them to an online network for free viewing or trading.
There are many websites across the Internet that offer legal streaming movies, either for a one-time fee or as part of a subscription service. Some even offer legal streaming movies for free that play over the Internet through your Web browser. While there are numerous types of software available to record such video, it is illegal to use the software to make copies of copyright protected material. Before recording a streaming video, make sure the copyright owner allows their streaming video to be copied.
Peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing networks allow users to upload digital files and share them with others. All sorts of documents are legally transferred this way, such as word processing files, graphics, audio and video. However, uploading or downloading digital copies of a copyrighted work using file sharing networks is illegal. Unauthorized digital copies of movies simply cannot be shared for any reason without express permission from the copyright holder, and motion picture companies bring suits every year against those who illegal upload or download digital copies of movies.