Where To Download Movies Legally

Download movies legally (1:38pm est tue nov 15 2005) there is a better site to understand which are the best movies downloads sites online, this is the url they reviewed and rated all the best.

Top 10 free movie download websites which are fully legal

All of us love movies and it is a double bonus if the movies are for free. However, the only problem is that if you search for free movies online, you will be presented with a long list of illegal websites offering you the latest Hollywood or Bollywood blockbuster for free. While many of you may be using torrent downloads to view such movies, there are some movie websites which are completely legal and also offer you free movies. Yes! You may never have heard of some of these website which legally offer you free movies.

Top 10 Free Legal Movie Download Websites:

1. The Internet Archive :

Yes, among other things, The Internet Archive also offers free movie downloads to users. While it is known for its music and books collection, The Internet Archive also has superb movie titles that you can download for free in form of torrents.

2. Retrovision:

Retrovision another such great free resource which offers great movie downloads. Another bonus point is Retrovision‘s genre-specific menus which make searching for movies very user-friendly. The movies are archived into different popular categories like Adventure, Comedy, Crime, Cartoons, Sci-Fi, Horror, War, Drama, and Westerns. If you are looking for all the content at one place, just hit the All Movie List button. A great place to legally get free movie downloads.

3. Crackle:

Crackle is another great free movie download website. As the website is owned by Sony, most of Crackle movies are copyrighted to it and Sony has an awesome collection. The website requires a simple registration and you will be lead into a movie world that is incomparable. Crackle hosts many popular movies and TV shows which you wouldn’t find elsewhere. Crackle offerings include Seinfeld, Firefly, Sports Jeopardy, and many more.

4. YouTube:

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All of us know YouTube for its famous video tutorials, unboxing videos, movie trailers, and music albums. But YouTube also is a great repository for Hollywood and Bollywoodmovies. If you search deeply enough you will find multiple channels that let you watch movies for free. If you are indie buff, YouTube is also a great source of offbeat yet popular films which you many never find anywhere else.The Paramount Vault is one such channel which has a lot of cult classics. You can find a lot of long lost movies by searching the Best of YouTube Movies.

5. MoviesFoundOnline:

MoviesFoundOnline is a great repository for free movies, independent films, TV shows, stand-up comedy videos etc.. The website hosts free movies ranging from cult classics and short films to documentaries and comedy movies. MoviesFoundOnline doesn’t host or upload any media on its own and offers you links for downloads. It also deletes any content which is found to infringe copyright.

6. Open Culture:

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If you are a Charlie Chaplin movies fan, Open Culture is the go to website. It offers high-quality movies from all over the world. In addition to movies, Open Culture also hosts free online courses, and free language lessons, e-Books, audio books. Open Culture’s movie download section boasts almost all of Oscar winning movies and is said to currently host approximately 1,150 free movies.

7. PopcornFlix:

PopcornFlix is not to be confused by Popcorn Time of torrents. This free movie streaming website is owned by Screen Media Ventures and hosts many movies. The website hosts thousands of free movies spread across multiple categories like drama, action, comedy, horror etc. PopcornFlix has all the original National Geographic series movies and many excellent nature documentaries.

8. Classic Cinema Online:

This website is for classics. If you are a fan of classic cinema, Classic Cinema Online is the website for you. Classic Cinema Online hosts cult classics like Bye Bye Birdie, Moby-Dick, Lone Ranger which you wont find anywhere else. The website boasts of a nice movie search feature which gets you your choice of genre quickly without any fuss.

9. Hulu:

Hulu is not exactly free but you can opt for a free account and access many classic movies as part of its limited content which boasts of nearly a 1000 free movies. Apart from the movies, Hulu lets you watchfree TV shows which were popular in 1990s and 2000s.

10. Public Domain Torrents:

Public Domain Torrents is the only torrent website which hosts completely legal copyrighted movie torrent downloads. This free movie downloadwebsite is a home to a number of old and classic movies.

There is also https://zone-mania.com for french movies.

It’s easy to find movies to download or stream, but if you’re flying straight and narrow or want to support and watch films that are free, public domain, or whose creators want them free and openly shared, here are some great sites to bookmark—and visit when you want something new to watch.

10. Vimeo

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Where To Download Free Movies Legally

Vimeo is most certainly second seat to YouTube when it comes to size and popularity, but it’s still a great video upload service for short film and independent filmmakers, and for people who want the freedom and flexibility of a mobile-friendly, HD-capable upload service with great privacy and video management controls and an upbeat community of users.

For those folks just looking for something great to watch, Vimeo’s Staff Picks is full of gems that run the gamut from drama to documentary to science fiction and back again. Best of all, you can either grab the Vimeo mobile apps to take your movies with you, or stream Vimeo films directly to your TV through your Chromecast, Roku, Xbox, or Apple TV.

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9. Public Domain Torrents

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If you’d rather download than stream, Public Domain Torrents is the place to go. As you’d expect, a number of the films available for download there are pretty old, or classic cinema, but that doesn’t mean they’re not completely free to download and watch whenever you want, as often as you choose. Best of all, many of the films here are available in versions that are optimized or encoded for specific mobile devices, or you can just grab the highest quality download and do the encoding yourself, it’s up to you.

8. WatchDocumentary.org

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If thoughtful or informative movies are more your speed, WatchDocumentary.org is one good resource. Start by diving into the site’s many many categories, from documentaries on political assassinations and world conflicts, then move to money and business, science, and travel documentaries. The site doesn’t always host the documentaries themselves though—they use a Flash-based player to pipe movies to and through their site so you can watch them, and they offer an Android app if you’d like to cast or take films on the go. Still, the catalog is deep and worth exploring if you’re in the mood for something educational and thought-provoking. Oh—and keep in mind that “documentary” doesn’t always mean “factually correct,” it just means “intended to be non-fiction.”

7. TopDocumentaryFilms

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TopDocumentaryFilms, or TDF, is another great documentary site—and probably one that’s a little more up to date with more recent films. Like WatchDocumentary.org, the site has tons of documentaries broken up by category, from war and global conflict and crime to health and environment, and so on. It’s a little easier to navigate, and the site has a community of users who provide ratings for each film and can comment on them so you have an idea of what you’re in for before you watch. If you’d like a starting point, check out their top 100 documentary list to see what people are watching, or check the front page for their featured films.

Like other documentary sites, they’re a bit more of an aggregator, and their content is pulled from YouTube, Vimeo, and other sources—but that also makes it a convenient one-stop shop for what you want to see.

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6. Classic Cinema Online

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If the name doesn’t give it away immediately, Classic Cinema Online is ideal for those old, classic movie buffs who love the era of black and white films and artistically painted movie posters. Classics like Gregory Peck’s Moby Dick and the original Lone Ranger film are among some of the site’s highlights, but if you dive deeper you can find treasures like the 1952 Mutiny and the 1932 Secret of Dr. Kildare, among others.

If you’re looking for something specific, you can sort by category using the menu in the upper right, check out the serials available, or just check out the old, super classic silent films from the menu up there too. If you love old movies the Golden Age of Hollywood (or just look back on it with rose colored glasses from time to time,) this site is for you. As a bonus, if you prefer that era of television, check out Classic Television Online, its sister site.

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5. PopcornFlix

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With thousands of free TV shows and movies, and names and titles you’ll probably recognize, PopcornFlix is owned and operated by Screen Media Ventures, an independent distributor of TV shows and media to the television market—which means they have access to and rights to tons of shows. The service prides itself on the fact that none of its programs or movies are more than two clicks away, and they’re all completely free to watch on your computer, or through their mobile apps or other supported devices.

Their distribution rights mean you’ll find full National Geographic series catalogs, so you can catch up on episodes of Wild Justice or Alaska State Troopers, or sit back and watch Inspector Gadget or Rugrats Gone Wild.

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4. MoviesFoundOnline

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MoviesFoundOnline collects free films, independent films, stand-up comedy, TV shows, and other media freely available around the web. From full films to indie TV series to classic film, you can browse the site’s categories across the top—like short films, documentaries, viral videos, or comedy to name a few—to find something you’re interested in specifically. It’s worth pointing out that since MoviesFoundOnline doesn’t upload or host the media themselves, some of it may wind up vanishing if there’s a copyright claim, but they do host a lot of great, freely available, and difficult to find movies and TV recordings that would otherwise fall by the wayside of time.

3. Crackle

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Owned by Sony (which is why there’s so much to watch), Crackle is often overlooked when people discuss free streaming media on the web, but it’s present on a number of mobile devices and set-top boxes. You do have to sign up for an account, but once you do you can create a watchlist, get recommendations on what to watch based on the things you like, and browse the full library of TV shows and movies, including things like Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and Sports Jeopardy!, or TV series’ like Firefly and Seinfeld.

That’s part of the beauty of Crackle—you’ll absolutely find movies you’ve heard of, shows you actually want to watch, and more, and it’s all free—as long as you’re willing to watch commercials and ads occassionally.

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2. YouTube

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Pirate Bay

No list of freely available TV shows and movies would be complete without YouTube, and not because of the sheer volume of ripped and pirated media available there—in fact, YouTube is home to a ton of free, and freely-published movies and TV shows, many of which are YouTube originals, and others that are available via Creative Commons or shared in the public domain. Many YouTube originals are vanishing behind the paid curtain of YouTube Red, but there are still plenty to be found, and lots of entertaining shows and movies—and channels to subscribe to. For example, the Paramount Vault channel is packed with free movies, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

1. The Internet Archive

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The Internet Archive is a repository for all sorts of things, and while you probably know it for the ever-useful Wayback Machine, it’s also great for public domain films, independent media, TV broadcasts and newsreels, and other media that you’re free to use and remix on your own as well as sit back and enjoy for yourself.

There are plenty of movies, organized by category like sci-fi, horror, or film noir, but also art films, educational videos and films, special collections that were made available to the Internet Archive for posterity, documentaries, and even stock footage. It’s not the most easily browse-able, or organized for non-computer screens, and good luck getting that video on a bigger screen unless you download it first, but it’s certainly a treasure trove.

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Illustration by Nick Criscuolo.

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