There are many of us who are movie geeks and wish to watch every movie or series that exists on the face of the earth! But that requires money and time, and even if we manage to have the latter, it still won’t do any good if we don’t have the bag of dollars ready to be spent!
But what if we can watch the movies and series that we want for free? I know that might sound absurd to you, but not to those who have been doing it for years now. There are many illegal sites that offer movies and series free of cost, but they are pirated and hence, illegal in many countries too. One such site is Putlocker.
Putlocker was a website that originated in the UK, back in 2011 and grew the traffic on the website in no time. Putlocker was used for streaming movies and TV shows online, and its copies and mirrors still exist despite the original popular site being taken down. It’s currently not known whether the original founder or founders of the site are associated or have anything to do with these mirrors.
There are various websites that host a copy of Putlocker and are still very popular to this day. However, because law enforcement for piracy has been cracking down on sites that distribute copyrighted and pirated content, many have been looking for alternatives to these services. So now the questions are whether you are allowed to use Putlocker by law? What are the alternatives? Read on to learn this, and more.
To put it simply, Putlocker used to be an online platform of websites and hosted files where people can go and stream films and TV series for free. Going back to the history of Putlocker, it started in the UK in the year 2011 and grew in a short span of time. The Putlocker portal was created in 2012 at Uketo giving its users a platform to watch all new movies.
However, by May 2016 the site had been blocked in the UK following an order by the High Court. At its peak, Putlocker was ranked among the top 250 sites that had received the most traffic worldwide. Putlocker has also been reported by the Motion Picture Association of America as a major piracy threat. The Putlocker website maintained by the original team remains available online, but at least fifty mirrors or proxy websites, many of which use the Putlocker name, have been identified.
There are many internet service companies who wish to access Putlockers but have limited their penetration as there are new innovations that continue to emerge. There used to be a time when Putlocker had millions of viewers and later the trade association in The United States interfered and complained it was an illegal counterfeiting threat.
Putlocker not only has a collection of old movies and new movies or movies released a year ago, but also a very large index. There is no requirement to pay a penny, as the website content is accessible at no charge. The site is full of thousands of Bollywood, Hollywood, Hindi dub, Tamil, Telugu, and Bengali films. There are not only various types of movies, but the users can also download WWE matches. Putlocker site’s unique features of this website make it famous for film lovers and have even reported about 90k users a month.
Since many of the users use mobile, there are many illegal websites like Putlocker that have created their own apps to offer pirated content. The app is available on Play Store and as an APK file via third-party sources. But was later blocked due to its act of piracy and breaching of the copyright act. While some apps continue to exist and new ones emerge, we have listed below the specification of the latest one.
App Name | Putlocker APK |
Developer | Tic Store |
Version | V1.1.2 |
File Size | 8 MB |
Requirement | Android 4.4 + |
Category | Apps, Entertainment |
Last Updated | 22/02/2022 |
Available on | Google Play Store |
When it comes to websites like Putlocker, there are some good advantages to them. Let’s see what are those below:
Now that we know some advantages of Putlocker, let’s see the disadvantages. Just because it is free, it doesn’t mean there won’t be any cons.
Basically, Putlocker is a torrent site that uploads pirated media content, i.e., movies and web series. The interface of the website is pretty easy to understand, and users can search for the content they want to watch for free. They can download the movies and series or stream them online as well. However, in order to do so, there are some simple that one has to follow:
Now, you will be able to surf through the website and find free content. And, along with the content, you will also see ads, which is the website’s medium of earning money.
And so, this was how Putlokcer works. Now, let’s move on to the movie categories that Putlocker has to offer to its audience.
With a large number of on-the-website movies, it becomes difficult to find one of your famous websites. Therefore, the website divides them into different groups, making it easy to choose which one you want. Once you get in the mood, the community will recognize the video as well. Now let’s see what kind of item the site is for you.
Even though the original site of Putlocker was banned by many countries and taken down, there are still many links in the name of the website that continue to exist on the internet.
Apart from free movies and series, Putlocker has a lot more to offer. There are different sizes of movies as per the user’s demand and types of quality, ranging from 360p to 4 GB. There are also different types of formats. Below are the specifications of the three factors.
Quality | Size | Formats |
360p | 300 MB | MP4 (Encoding Format) |
480p | 400 MB | MKV (Encoding Format) |
720p | 700 MB | AVI (Encoding Format) |
1080p | 1 GB | MPEG (Encoding Format) |
Blue Ray | 1.5 GB | |
Full HD | 2 GB | |
HD | 2.5 GB | |
3 GB | ||
4 GB |
Even though there are still many users on the Putlocker website that prefer to watch the content there and stream it for free, there are other alternatives as well which aren’t much different from Putlocker. Here’s a list of some of them:
These were some illegal alternatives for the Putlockers website. However, there are a lot of them, so we are going to attach a table below for more of them for your awareness.
Tamilrockers | Movieszap |
RDxHD | HDMoviesArea |
Fimlyhit | MovieRulz2 |
Tamilgun | SDMoviesPoint |
Worldfree4u | Besthdmovies |
Filmygod | 9xmovies |
Vegamovies | TamilMV |
Now, let’s see what have been the overview of the website Putlocker over the years.
The following is the table showing the stance on piracy in different countries and their different takes and actions against it.
Stance on Piracy | Countries |
Piracy Legal or Allowed for Use | Spain, Poland, Switzerland |
Piracy is Illegal | China, Finland, France, Italy, Germany, Britain, Japan, Latvia, Portugal, Russia, Australia, South Africa, and the United States |
Piracy is Illegal, but Individuals are not Actively Prosecuted | Greece, Israel, Iran, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Argentina, Brazil, India, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Uruguay |
Disclaimer: This article is purely meant to be informational. We are not professionals and any claims made in this article aren’t legal advice. Furthermore, every country has its own laws, and they can change constantly. Hence, if you have any doubts or questions relating to the rules and regulations in your country, please consult with a local expert on said regulations.
We do not condone the use of Putlocker in use in the countries where it is banned or illegal in any shape, way, or form.
Even though piracy of any sort is illegal, some digital platforms are given permission to show movies. The list is as given below:
Since there is a loss of billions that the entertainment industry has to face every year due to piracy of movies and series, the government has decided to take some strict steps apart from the copyright act. Let’s see what are the consequences of the crime of piracy in our next paragraph.
There are some legal consequences for watching or sharing the content which is available on illegal sites like Putlockers. In order to stop piracy to prevent losses, the government has taken initiatives as follows:
The Act state that whosoever would be found recording a film without the filmmaker’s permission will be subjected to the following consequences:
Anyone and everyone that is involved in recording and sharing or uploading and downloading content from such sites is eligible for the Act and will have to face the above-mentioned consequences.
Ans: Putlocker is one of the largest illegal Putlocker download movies free websites to download free movies. There are many other websites that you may find useful for downloading movies. Only a few websites provide current hits on a stylish website. So here is a selection of the top alternative websites that may fit Putlocker’s intent instead.
Ans: It is not sure whether using Putlocker for your device is safe or not, but, using Putlocker lawfully is illegal and those who do it can face harsh consequences.