Never before has entertainment been so widely available to so many people. The adoption of high speed Internet access in greater numbers of homes as well as the Internet’s rapid emergence is responsible for this. With this abundance come issues that concern safety and ethics.

For many, ethics and concern for safety are the reasons why they seek out legal movie downloads. Even though your intentions might be in the right place, you may still be making illegal downloads of movies by accident. So there is the possibility of accidental exposure to viruses and spy ware with these downloads.

It isn’t enough to stay away from amateurish and spammy download sites. It’s possible that you’re getting movies illegally even though you’re using a legitimate download membership at a professionally deigned web site. It can still happen even if the business owner has honest intentions and you have paid a membership fee.

So how does this come about? If the membership site asks for modest a fee of about $25 in exchange for access to a ridiculous quantity of movies (millions), then he’s probably setting you up with the means for downloading and accessing movies off a peer to peer (p2p) file sharing network. Because the number of downloads to be had from p2p is enormous, he really is telling the truth and you are getting value for your money if you previously lacked the means and knowledge to use p2p networks.

The risks begin to build up after you’ve become a proficient and active user of p2p networks. A naive user of p2p is vulnerable to all of its associated dangers such as odd computer behavior due to a virus, or an odd looking bank balance due to spy ware. And unbeknownst to you, those movies that you’re happily downloading were uploaded illegally.

Don’t expect to get 100 percent protection from all of the viruses in p2p networks with your anti-virus program. Your computer is only protected against the specific viruses and spy ware that the anti-virus software was programmed to recognize. Your anti-virus program will not protect your computer from new, obscure, or modified viruses.

A good rule of thumb for determining if a movie is legal for download is that if it is older than 4 or 5 decades, it is probably in the public domain without a copyright. If you find a free movie on a p2p network that is a recent Hollywood blockbuster, then it is illegal to download. Locating the odd movie that is the exception to this rule will demand a lot of research on your part.

So it is not exactly a relaxed and effortless affair to download movies that are safe and legal. You aren’t enjoying yourself if you’re constantly worried about threats to your computer and your personal information. Researching the copyrights of movies isn’t exactly entertainment either.

Perhaps it’s worth your while finding a well established movie download site that guarantees the legality and safety of all of their downloads and doesn’t fix you up with p2p downloading. No guarantees about safety or legality can be made by a movie download membership that sets you up with p2p. You are on your own if you’re using p2p networks.