I am certain that if you are reading this article then, you know about 123movies and how it was one of the most popular streaming websites of pirated movies and shows. It was so popular among people and continues to remain known over the Internet even after 2 years of it being completely shut down. But there are many talks about its illegality and the clones of this website stealing database of its audience etc. Therefore, in this article, I am going to clear all your doubts regarding 123movies and if this website is safe and legal to use, so keep reading! We will also share a list of top 123movies alternatives that you can start using today.
Contents
What is 123movies?
123movies was an illegal website that provided access to users to the collection of pirated movies/shows. It was a website with no subscription fees at all and thus was and continues to remain the most searched on Google even after its shutdown. This same website also goes by many names that include “GoMovies“, “GoStream”, “memories“, and “123movieshub“.
However, it was successfully taken down in March 2018 but its network continues to be active via close sites. Therefore, many users still have access to these similar websites that looks exactly like 123movies through online mirrors. Now, we know what must be in your mind after reading this, everybody likes a free streaming website but only if they are legit. Therefore, we are going to clear all your doubts on if using it or its clone sites is safe and legal or not.
Is 123movies Legal To Use?
Let us start with the basics to understand the answer to this question deeply. So, if a website is providing access to streaming movies or any sort of media content without having a proper license then, it is an ILLEGAL one. Therefore, the illegality of 123movies depends on countries and their laws over copyright infringement or piracy.
Several countries allow their population access to copyrighted content for personal use or allow it all together. Therefore, you need to ensure what are your country’s rules against pirated and illegal websites like 123movies before going ahead on that website.
And we find it our moral duty to let our readers aware that “Piracy is a legit crime and so is watching/downloading pirated content.” And there is not a huge difference between downloading pirated content from an illegal website and streaming the pirated content, they both are the same. Now, we are going to tell you about a few countries where pirating is illegal and where it is legal but for personal use.
Pirating is illegal and strictly banned in countries like the United States, Australia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Portugal, South Africa, etc. And pirating is legal (for personal use) in Switzerland, Spain, and Poland. And there are many countries where pirating is illegal but individuals are not actively prosecuted for it such as India, Iran, Canada, Mexico, Singapore, etc.
Is It Safe To Use 123movies?
It’s not like a yes or no question because it depends on the person hosting the website. As we have mentioned earlier that the original 123movies has been shut down and there are thousands of clone websites also known as mirrors are still claiming to provide access to the pirated content available on 123movies.
And once you click on those mentioned mirror websites, the person who is hosting that particular site can have access to your database or can inject malware/viruses into your computer system. And there have been reports where users have suffered from the said virus through these websites.
Thus, nobody can say if these websites are safe or not, or which one, in particular, is safe. So, it can be a dangerous step for you if you get caught up in this illegal stuff. We would suggest you not use these pirated websites and stay as far from them as you can.
Just in case, if you still decide to go on with these websites then, make sure that you are protecting your system with a VPN and strong antivirus software. For what it’s worth, you do not want to go through all of this just to get access to a few pirated links. In this article later, we will be providing you with several legit streaming websites that you can use instead of 123movies.
1. Be Aware Of Mirrors
We are mentioning it for the nth time that 123movies was shut down back in 2018 and therefore, any website with this name or a similar name available on the internet is a mirror to the original website. The mirror website might look very similar to what 123movies looked like but they are just copies/mirrors of it.
Thus, they are not safe as they can transmit the virus into your computer/laptop and infect it so do not open this website without reading the above article. I hope we made it very much clear and there are no more doubts in your mind.
Alternatives For 123movies in 2022
We are going to provide you with a list of alternatives for 123movies. These sites are way safer than 123movies and their many clones, so we would recommend using this site instead of any those that provide pirated content. We have used these websites and applications and they have proven to be the best in providing up-to-date content:
Conclusion
Be aware of any sites that work and look similar to 123movies, we don’t recommend the use of such sites. So, try to be away from such websites and try the applications that we have mentioned in the list above. If you have any queries then, you can let us know in the comments below. I hope you liked reading this article!