With how advanced the technology is, it may be really hard to distinguish a site running legally from one that is illegal, especially if you are not tech-savvy or nothing even close to that.

It is also hard to determine what characteristics and features of a site separate websites. Or how a legally run site looks from an illegally run site. For that reason, most people have found themselves in trouble.

While there is nothing really big to worry about when it comes to whether streaming movies online is legal or not, it is important to know what kind of sites you are hanging around and how they are run.

How to Spot the Red flags

Red Flags indicates that there is something fishy going on with the sites that you watch movies free from. It could be hard to spot them but there are some seemingly tiny details that are always overlooked which are actually the main indication of a fishy site.

A site with no information of the owners behind it should raise some concern. There are multiple sites online which owners don’t really appear anywhere on their own website but if they are searched up online, they will always pop up.

If you are working on a site that the owner or the team behind it would never appear anywhere, that could be (not always) an indication that there is something more to that just showing movies and they probably are hiding their identity.

Copyrights are another great indication of illegal sight. Any movie that appears to be copyrighted means it shouldn’t be there. Therefore, the uploader put it there illegally and could be punished for it.

Blurry videos, missing parts, and overall poor quality could be another bad sign. If the website has nothing to worry about concerning uploading a movie on the site, there is no reason the movie isn’t showing well.

Some sites keep changing their names and domains for no reason. Well, there could actually be a reason. They probably did something and had the site shut and they came back with another name. Or it could be something worse.

Reading reviews is one of the surest ways to know whether a site is legal or illegal. See what other visitors are saying about a particular site. There are many review sites and forums, sometimes even where different people leave their own opinions of the site. Check them out. Many bad reviews could only mean that the site isn’t as good and should probably be avoided.

Who is at Fault?

You may think that you stand no risks when you watch movies free online, whether a site is up with permission or illegally. While that may be true, it also depends on laws in your region. Even if you somehow find yourself in the mix, you might just suffer a small punishment while the website owner shoulders the whole burden.

You will be at fault though when you decide to download a movie from these sites, make the same copy, and go as far as uploading it somewhere else. That only means you are violating the law.