FMovies is a popular international free movie streaming website that offers its viewers access to fresh streaming entertainment from around the world at no cost. But is it safe? Is it legal? And what type of content do they offer?
Let’s see how FMovies performs in our review. We’ll discuss how trustworthy the site is and whether or not you’ll run into any trouble using the site.
Content library
The only word that can describe the video collection of FMovies is comprehensive (yet questionable), as there are a lot of movies available on this website. You can search for any movie from any era and are most likely to find it. This website has a massive 2.4 million monthly audience, according to VPN review site PrivacySavvy.
But the content may be questionable for some viewers.
For example, as of this writing, the following titles were available on its landing page.
- The Munsters (unreleased in the US as of this writing)
- Lou (a recently released Netflix exclusive)
- Do Revenge (a recently released Netflix exclusive)
- The Woman King (in theaters as of this writing)
Unfortunately, yes, this means FMovies appears to be a file share site that provides access to unlicensed content.
But is it illegal to use?
Accessing content that is unlicensed
As we’ve established from our favorite attorney Adam Michaels, streaming unlicensed content, while certainly illegal from a sharing perspective, may not equate to a clear cut violation for the viewer.
According to Michaels, if you are watching something on a free streaming site, you may not be breaking the law – at least not currently.
“Whether it’s wrong or not, in a moral sense, is something you can ask your friends or your minister. But whether it’s illegal from a copyright viewpoint, the best answer is, probably not on an individual viewer basis,” says Jim Gibson, law professor and founder of the Intellectual Property Institute.
“This is because you are neither sharing copywritten content nor copying it. Downloading copywritten content is illegal because you are making a copy,” added Michaels, “however, streaming media is not because a new copy is not created.”
In this case, FMovies may make the argument that they are not violating copyright law either, as technically, they are not making copies of the content themselves, but linking to other sites where the files are hosted. But we digress.
As usual, this should not be substituted for legal advice.
Different video quality options
There is nothing worse than losing connection mid stream. Well, except maybe a terrible stream quality in the first place. The push for 1080p content has never been greater. But buffering is a real issue for viewers who have a weak connection or live in rural areas with restricted access to broadband. In this case, FMovies has a great feature that allows you to modify your viewing experience. Depending on your internet speed, viewers can also reduce the quality of content to 480p.
Most websites do not have this feature. So, it is nice to see that FMovies has implemented it.
Ad annoyance
This is where the free movie schtick really starts to rear its ugly head. FMovies is loaded with switch-a-roo type advertising experiences. For example, from its homepage there is a navigation link item called “IMDB Rated” (movies) which looks like a regular menu item – hardly a place to link an intrusive advertisement – that ultimately opens another browser window with a very aggressive pop-up.
We found this same technique linked to other seemingly harmless elements that a user would assume link to other places on the site. They don’t. In fact, in our test we found even clicking through the pages to view the available titles would sporadically pop-up these advertisements. Very misleading.
And while the wireframe appears clean and ad-free, FMovies has a lot of ads on its website – assume every link you click will take you somewhere unexpected. And these annoying pop-up style ads are not limited to links on the site itself. The ads do not stop or pause when you are streaming either.
Redirection
As we mentioned above, FMovies does not actually host content on its website, but rather redirects to sites that host these movie files.
This means that the site has a very effective redirect function. FMovies has multiple number of domains (we linked you to what we believe is its main site above), which means that whenever a link is down, you’ll be be automatically redirected to its newest location.
A toast for file share sites looking to avoid making copies of protected IP?
Always the bright side, right?
Summary
FMovies is a very popular website to stream free movies across the globe. And while there is little question you are accessing content that has not been licensed by the hosting site (at least, this is how it appears, we make no statement about what is not proven), you are unlikely to run into any legal trouble viewing the files (just don’t make a copy) as long as you can withstand the advertisements and the all the places they magically pop-up.
Pros
- Clean layout
- Good library
Cons
- Ads, ads, and more deceptive ad experiences (stop linking to external sites in your nav and pagination bar, not cool)
Related: What Is AZ Movies And Is It Safe?