# Is Magashare Legal? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 20, 2014, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-magashare-legal/686567 "2014-04-20T22:49:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2014, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-magashare-legal/686567/1 "2014-04-20T22:49:08Z")
I heard about a site called Megashare. It has a bunch of current movies and doesn’t charge to view them. This has to be illegal, right? Has anyone heard of this. Their site has a **.sh** ending if that makes any difference. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2014, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-magashare-legal/686567/2 "2014-04-20T23:32:31Z")
It’s one of many sites sharing movies. As to whether it is illegal depends on what the movie is. Certainly virtually any Hollywood movie of the last few decades is illegal, but there are probably some older out-of-copyright movies, foreign movies never copyright in the U.S. and amateur productions which are legal. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-magashare-legal/686567/3 "2014-04-21T01:15:12Z")
The site itself is legal, and can be used for many legitimate purposes. The use of the site may or may not be legal, depending on the specific file being shared, and in actual practice, is probably illegal far more often than legal. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-magashare-legal/686567/4 "2014-04-21T01:31:45Z")
So, bad idea to watch “An Unexpected Journey” there… ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-magashare-legal/686567/5 "2014-04-21T02:17:41Z")
The particular site the OP is referring to is almost certainly violating copyright law in almost every country. Despite the similar name, it’s not a Rapidshare/Megaupload style of sharing site. It’s a fly-by-night site that uses complex layers of subterfuge and exploitation to operate. There are many of them, and the only reason they exist for any time at all is that it’s difficult and expensive to locate and shut down all of the components involved. Many of them are malware carriers, so beware. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-magashare-legal/686567/6 "2014-04-21T03:15:48Z")
Please don’t take this as legal advise. Generally, viewing streaming is not illegal even if its not authorised by the copyright owner. So if you see a Youtube link of Captain America that is not illegal nor is it seeing on some other file hosting website. Downloading? Generally is. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-magashare-legal/686567/7 "2014-04-21T03:22:17Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Generally, viewing streaming is not illegal even if its not authorised by the copyright owner. So if you see a Youtube link of Captain America that is not illegal nor is it seeing on some other file hosting website. I’d like to see some kind of cite for that. ---
**Author:** ![Dereknocue67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6de8d8/32.png) [@Dereknocue67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dereknocue67)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-magashare-legal/686567/8 "2014-04-21T07:16:19Z")
I just visited the site and a popup advised the following: "Because there are problems with video hosting company, MEGASHARE is closing and not updaing (sic) new movies in future. Thank you for your support!" ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-magashare-legal/686567/9 "2014-04-21T07:36:12Z")
The **.sh** domain is St Helena, incidentally. Although I do not suppose the site has any real connection with the island, and certainly will not have been physically hosted there. According to Wikipedia, St Helena is currently connected to the internet only via a single “10/3.6 Mbit/s” satellite link. ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-magashare-legal/686567/10 "2014-04-21T07:51:59Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > and certainly will not have been physically hosted there. They’ve taken several steps to make it difficult - perhaps effectively impossible - to determine who hosts it. At any rate, the idea of a physical hosting location is mostly meaningless these days. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-magashare-legal/686567/11 "2014-04-21T08:46:13Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > I’d like to see some kind of cite for that. Most of the cites I have are from subscription based websites but [here is one which i](http://blogs.findlaw.com/law_and_life/2012/04/is-streaming-or-watching-movies-illegal.html)s from a free site and while not complete, it does summarise some of the main issues well. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-magashare-legal/686567/12 "2014-04-21T09:11:14Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Please don’t take this as legal advise. > > Generally, viewing streaming is not illegal even if its not authorised by the copyright owner. So if you see a Youtube link of Captain America that is not illegal nor is it seeing on some other file hosting website. > > Downloading? Generally is. Not true. Firstly when you stream you _are_ downloading a copy of the film to your computer, albeit a temporary one. (The movie downloads the next piece as you watch the previous one. It’s called buffering.) When you’ve watched a movie you’ll find the whole thing in your temporary internet files folder, to be deleted when those files eventually get cleaned. Thus you are in the eyes of the copyright law making a copy of the film in order to view it. The fact that it’s a temporary file is neither here nor there. You don’t get round copyright law that easily. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-magashare-legal/686567/13 "2014-04-21T10:02:42Z")
While you are correct in a technical sense, the legal answer is (as in the link above) more murkey tending to the “not illegal” side. While the aguements have been made in the vein that your post is in, the majority of authorities that I have seen tend towards the “simply veiwing streaming” is not illegal. ---
**Author:** ![blindboyard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindboyard/32/2833_2.png) [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-magashare-legal/686567/14 "2014-04-21T10:45:29Z")
Any site offering free new movies is unlikely to be legit. Whether you want to obey the law is a personal choice. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-magashare-legal/686567/15 "2014-04-21T11:14:06Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > While you are correct in a technical sense, the legal answer is (as in the link above) more murkey tending to the “not illegal” side. While the aguements have been made in the vein that your post is in, the majority of authorities that I have seen tend towards the “simply veiwing streaming” is not illegal. I’ll grant you it’s a murky area and some countries (Germany, for instance) have ruled that streaming does not break copyright. The situation in the US is more uncertain. The MPAA insists that it is illegal but also are sponsoring a bill to clarify the law. While it’s highly unlikely that individuals will be pursued for watching streamed movies (although not impossible as witness the music prosecutions a few years back) it’s not an activity I’d recommend. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-magashare-legal/686567/16 "2014-04-21T15:29:23Z")
Technically, streaming is copying, and is illegal. Practically speaking, it accomplishes the same thing as copying, and so ought to be illegal if copying is illegal. In what sense is streaming not like copying? Of course, even aside from the question of whether it’s legal for you, the people who run such sites tend to have a shady view of ethics in general. Do you trust them not to try to infect your computer with something? ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-magashare-legal/686567/17 "2014-04-21T17:04:33Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > Not true. Firstly when you stream you _are_ downloading a copy of the film to your computer, albeit a temporary one. (The movie downloads the next piece as you watch the previous one. It’s called buffering.) When you’ve watched a movie you’ll find the whole thing in your temporary internet files folder, to be deleted when those files eventually get cleaned. This depends on the method of streaming. If it’s progressive download, the file is cached and you will have the entire clip/movie if it’s allowed to download completely. With true streaming, the media segments are decoded, buffered, played and discarded. I don’t know what Megashare used, but most of the big content providers like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu use true (adaptive) streaming. YouTube traditionally used progressive download, but I believe they’re moving to adaptive streaming as well. I have no idea what the legal implications are. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-magashare-legal/686567/18 "2014-04-21T17:12:46Z")
Even if you only have five minutes of the movie on your computer at once, those five minutes are copyrighted. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-magashare-legal/686567/19 "2014-04-21T17:13:40Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > So, bad idea to watch “An Unexpected Journey” there… IANAL, but I think as long as you are just downloading/streaming, and not uploading, like if you were using torrent or another modern P2P protocol, you are not breaking the law. The site hosting may be, since they are distributing, but the people receiving the file are not. Again, I’m not a lawyer. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-magashare-legal/686567/20 "2014-04-21T17:21:11Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Even if you only have five minutes of the movie on your computer at once, those five minutes are copyrighted. As long as the user is not uploading or distributing those five minutes in any way, I do not think the user is breaking any laws. Or at least, I have never heard of anybody being sued or charged with anything unless they upload/distribute. It wouldn’t surprise me, I guess, if simply having those five minute was technically illegal, but there is little incentive to pursue it vs going after uploaders/sharers. Also, the MPAA/RIAA have very few ways of even knowing the material is on the hard drive, unless it is being shared. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-magashare-legal/686567.md?page=2)