Watching 123Movies Safely. Is it legal?

123Movies has been around for a while and it has proven to be very popular with people wanting to stream movies online. However, it might be illegal to watch 123Movies in your home country. For those countries, we’ve listed some (legal) alternatives. These are the key points from the article below:

• Watching streams on 123Movies is probably not allowed in your country. It depends on your country’s resources whether or not you will be prosecuted if the authorities find out you are watching copyrighted content.
• In March of 2018 the official 123Movie website shut down, with a note on their homepage stating “respect filmmakers by paying for movies and TV-shows”. This means that every site after 2018 is a copy of the original website hosted by others.
• Some popular legal alternatives to 123Movies are paid services such as Netflix, Disney Plus and Amazon Prime.

For those who are interested, you can access 123movies here. But please read the next paragraph before you do.

Why many people use a VPN for watching 123Movies

There are two main reasons why people use a VPN (virtual private network) for 123Movies:

• To stay safe and anonymous online, because a VPN hides their IP address and identity. This way people become practically untraceable when using sites like 123Movies.
• To unblock the 123Movies website in countries where it is blocked.

A popular VPN that people use to stream 123Movies safely is Surfshark. It is a very affordable VPN with a 30-day money-back guarantee. You can try Surfshark without risk by clicking the orange button below.

123Movies used to be one of the most popular websites to stream movies and tv-shows online. It was also known under the names “GoMovies,” “GoStream,” “MeMovies,” and “123movieshub.” The official 123Movies website was taken down in March of 2018, but copies of the site still exist and are accessible through online mirrors. Even so, 123Movies still is a very popular search term according to Google Trends and it shows that these streaming services are still in high demand.

That being said, law-enforcement agencies from around the world have been keeping a close eye on any site or service that allows users to view copyrighted content without paying for it. This raises the questions: are you allowed to stream movies and shows from 123Movies? What do people do to keep themselves safe when using 123Movies? And what decent alternatives are out there?

Is it Illegal to use 123Movies?

The answer to this question is that using 123Movies is probably illegal in most cases. We say probably because every country and region has its own stance on pirating copyrighted content. Most countries try to protect intellectual property by outlawing the downloading (and therefore streaming) of copyrighted content. However, there are some countries that allow it for personal use or allow it all together.

Because every country has different rules regarding copyright infringement and piracy, you should always make sure what your country’s rules are before going to a site like 123Movies, Popcorn Time, PrimeWire, or Putlocker. These are some of the general stances on piracy we could find:

What are the Legal Consequences of using 123Movies?

Not only do countries have different rules when it comes to streaming, but countries also differ in what consequences there are for breaking those rules. For example, in Germany you get fined quite severely when the authorities find out you’re downloading copyrighted content, while in other countries you might just get a warning. With streaming services such as 123movies, it’s even harder to prosecute, because there are no files left on someone’s computer after watching a stream, although you can easily be tracked by your IP address.

Not all countries put effort into enforcing the rules by actively prosecuting people who use illegal streaming services. Often times, the authorities go after the people distributing the content, rather than the individual viewers. However, when you’re in a country that does crackdown on copyright infringement, you might get a hefty fine in the mail. And this can get very expensive. If you want to know more about these types of fines, check out our article on fines for downloading.