Loopholes become more popular as prices rise

To steal or not to steal, that is the question. Whether tis nobler in the mind to watch the movie in theatres — harried by extraordinary prices — or to take up one’s laptop and illegally stream every single movie available to mankind. 

The temptation lies in easily accessible streaming sites, for both TV and movies, that offer their respective products free of charge. These sites use legal loopholes to avoid prosecution, while supposedly hurting creative artists in the entertainment industry. 

Sophomore Varna Jammula said she uses streaming websites such as Project Free TV to get around the high prices of DVDs and rental companies. 

 “It’s really easy to access and you don’t have to go to a store and get it,” Jammula said. “You can just sit at home and watch [shows or movies].”

Jammula said that she never watches any films that have not been formally released by the owners so she doesn’t feel guilty that she is watching movies online instead of renting them. The links on Project Free TV, Jammula said, are all legal. 

According to Jammula, there are no limitations to these websites other than pop-up ads. Jammula finds them “really annoying at times” but as long as the video is streaming, she doesn’t mind the ads. 

Additionally, Jammula said she does not worry about possible viruses that may affect her computer from the websites. 

“As long as you do not click on the ads, then your computer will not get any viruses,” Jammula said.

Jammula said that there are many options to choose from when it comes to online streaming, but she prefers Project Free TV to watch shows like “Suits” or “Gossip Girl” because its links do not take a long time to buffer and have the best quality. 

Jammula, however, does not watch movies online because she finds that the quality of streamed movies tends to suffer. 

In addition to streaming sites, YouTube converter websites, such as Video2MP3, are an alternative to buying music from iTunes. On these sites, songs are converted for free from a video file into an mp3 format. According to sophomore Shreya Kanchan, students use converters because they don’t want to pay the fee for iTunes music, which is generally around $1.29 per song. 

Since the price of iTunes music has gone up, Kanchan uses converters more often. Kanchan added that she “misses the days when any song was just 99 cents.”

Most converter websites are easy to find and just as easy to use, Kanchan said. She also said that the conversion takes 10-20 seconds, depending on the size of the video file, adding to the benefits of these websites. 

Since there is no limit on the number of songs a website can convert, there are no restrictions on them. Kanchan said that there is always the possibility of getting a virus, but that rarely occurs. 

Though these websites take away profit rightly earned by the artist, Kanchan said she does not feel much remorse. 

“Occasionally [I feel guilty], but then I look at all the new songs I have and I don’t feel as bad,” Kanchan said. 

Kanchan and Jammula are just some of the hundreds of students that use these online shortcuts.

“I think the majority of the school uses these websites because its easier to just watch a movie for free on your laptop than buying it,” Jammula said.