Megashare

Tinkerbell

Well-Known Forumite
I could do with some tech/law advice - I recently caught someone I know watching the latest Spider-Man - when I asked him how he was watching it he said 'everyone uses this site' and it's a library of films??

Www.megashare.info

When I looked - it is a website you don't have to sign up to - but simply choose a film and watch it via your computer.

I have told him to stop as I was sure it was a totally illegal site - I have since been told by someone else that to simply view is not illegal to watch but is if you download.

We are talking latest blockbuster films ??

Surely this can't be right - is there any technical people that can advise ??
 

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
I may be wrong but.....

The act of watching a pirated movie is not illegal, the act of facilitating that movie is. It is file sharers that are prosecuted, not file watchers. If you are not making the video available to anyone else then you are not committing a criminal activity, and therefore cannot be prosecuted. A recent case in Germany highlighted this when thousands of people that viewed pornography were tracked and contacted to pay a settlement figure (http://torrentfreak.com/redtube-wins-injunction-to-stop-anti-piracy-lawsuit-threats-131224/).

This is often known as copyright trolling because they have no plans to actually prosecute you, they just want an easy settlement of a few hundred pounds without having to do anything. Last time I checked nobody had ever been prosecuted in the EU for not paying up, and in fact the process for obtaining the details for people streaming content has since been called into question and halted as it is believed to be unlawful. It is very lucrative though, as many people pay up through fear even when they haven't actually done anything wrong themselves. It is always the internet subscriber who is targeted, and no attempt is ever made to determine if they were the ones committing the alleged crime as they know it is impossible to tell. In UK criminal law you cannot prosecute someone without evidence, so it can never go to court.

TL:DR: Its kind of wrong but nothing will come of it, unless you share the content yourself.
 

wmrcomputers

Stafford PC & laptop repair specialist
Another thing I'll point out is that these sites (plural, as there are far more than you might imagine) also pop up annoying windows every minute or so in the background. "The law" might not touch him but one day he'll be punished with a hard-drive full of crap-ware / adware (if he's lucky) or viruses possibly too.
A computer I had in only last week was bogged with crap due to the blokes son watching a footy game available only on sky via some kind of similar website. I removed about 17 viruses plus several crap programs that were grinding the computer to a halt. This was from watching just one game! I'd only re-installed windows for him a month earlier.
(Needless to say, he's informed me that said son is banned now from using his laptop) ;)
 

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
Good point on the malware, I had a look at that site and it immediately tried to open popup windows. Needless to say I left pretty sharpish.
 

Withnail

Well-Known Forumite
When i first saw the thread title i wondered whether Flossietoo had gotten into some difficulty with rodents -

giant-rabbit2.jpg


- and then i wondered whether she had gota quid to phone for some assistance.

Then i thought it unlikely that Flossietoo would misplace an 's'.
 

John Marwood

I ♥ cryptic crosswords
The word Mega was invented and then over used by Radio 1 DJ Peter Powell in the 1980's

It was then banned in 2003 by the BBC

That went down a bomb
 

Alee

Well-Known Forumite
oh no ..my beloved megashare has been blocked! can any1 else get onto it ?
 

Alee

Well-Known Forumite
ahhh that explains, thanks . any idea if theres any mirror sites that work ? can still use pirate bay....not that i do of course
 

Tinkerbell

Well-Known Forumite
ahhh that explains, thanks . any idea if theres any mirror sites that work ? can still use pirate bay....not that i do of course
It blocked us - but for some reason the block went again - I know it's as a result of a court case - but we still appear to be on.
 
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