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123Movies – Safe to Watch Movies Online or Not (Explained 2020)

Watching movies is the best time-pass for most persons who do not have any other hobbies. It is even better if you can manage to watch movies free of cost. Thus, many websites have started showing movies which requires no charges. 

Every website contains some terms and conditions for the viewers. Thus, you must check the legal point before streaming movies from a particular website. Otherwise, you might have to become a victim of legal issues in the future. 

123Movies is a free movie site that has become quite popular. GoMovies was the original name of 123Movie. Then, its name was changed to GoStream, MeMovies 123movieshub, and so on. Finally, the name 123Movies was decided after so many name changes. 

The Legitimacy of 123Movie

If you are interested in watching movies online, then you must be willing to know how safe 123Movie is. 123Movies is the most illegal website as per the declaration of the Motion Picture Association of America. Vietnamese officials banned this website around March 2018. These authorities conducted criminal investigations and decided to shut down this free movie site. The name of 123Movie came up when the US ambassador was discussing with the local Minister about illegal websites. The Online Notorious Market Overview was responsible for making 123Movies an illegal site. 

Though this website was hosted from Ukraine, it was being operated from Vietnam. The operator tried to hide the actual identity of this website. According to studies, almost 98 million people used to visit this site every month. The site’s homepage stated that visitors must pay the filmmakers for their movies and shows available on this site. 

Is the 123Movie Operating or Not?

This website is currently not available for movie lovers. The objective behind shutting down this site is to curb piracy. Several copy cat websites or clones have emerged in the past few years. However, they were unable to escape the legal actions. Moreover, the FBI banned some of these sites as well. 

Finally…

So, hopefully, you have realized that ‘watch movies online 123’ was not legal. This does not mean that you will never watch movies on a free website. Only, you must ensure whether the site is legal or not. If you search then, you will come across a number of legal websites that offer free viewing. Besides this, there are also paid sites where you can watch both new and old movies. All paid websites do not charge a high subscription fee from their visitors. So, you can use them to ensure safety and avoid legal issues. Therefore, check the legal status and then choose a website that offers high-quality videos.