MoviesJoy is a free over-the-top streaming website that links visitors to content from around the world.
Like Solar Movie, AZ Movies, and so many other off-shore websites that host links to video files, the legality of MoviesJoy is a question that comes up regularly. However, we’ve covered this aspect of free services thoroughly and have resolved to report on the landscape as it exists, not as it should.
Along those lines, MoviesJoy might not be a very famous movie streaming website, but it’s certainly a heavily loaded and up-to-date free OTT streaming service.
Let’s dive in!
Legality of MoviesJoy
You may be thinking, “unlicensed?” Yes, MoviesJoy, like others we’ve reviewed in 2022, is essentially a file-sharing site that doesn’t actually make file copies to share. Instead, it refers you to the file’s location, wherever that may be. Click on the title you want to stream and you’re linked to the location of the file. In this way, the site isn’t making a copy of the media, so it isn’t technically breaking any law.
But does this expose you to any risk? Well, it depends.
“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; however, streaming media is not because a new copy is not created.
Of course, the argument could be made that you are creating something similar to a copy, the video file still has to be downloaded and processed via your short-term memory (RAM), but that isn’t how “copies” are interpreted in 2022.
Content library
As long as websites like MoviesJoy are up and running, you will never run out of free movies and TV shows to watch. Despite a lower monthly audience of around 50 thousand viewers, MoviesJoy has a large library of movies and TV shows.
As of this writing (fall of 2022), the following titles were posted on its landing page (first row):
- Black Adam
- The School for Good and Evil
- Raymond and Ray
- The Stranger
- Pearl
- Halloween Ends
All of these titles are either still in theaters or tied to exclusive streaming deals with companies like Netflix and Warner Bros Discovery, so the chances are pretty high you’re viewing an unlicensed copy of the title on MoviesJoy. But they have a lot of it.
Neat little features
There are some features on MoviesJoy that we don’t frequently see on free streaming websites. One of the useful features is a navigation structure that allows you to filter your search based on genre, year, and even IMDB rating. This is great because these types of sites typically are “take it or leave it” with content. After all, it’s not like they can just order the content they want (for free) from the studio.
Here, MoviesJoy has gone the extra step to give visitors the ability to search a little deeper. Remember, these are links to whichever films are available on the web, so aggregating content can be tricky.
Pesky note: There are times when you go to filter based on something like IMDB rating only to get a pop-up to an advertisement. However, we found that when we closed the pop-up, the selection we were looking for is waiting for us on the original page. So just close the advertisement.
Backup link
MoviesJoy also offers a “backup button” that allows you to run the movie from a different source than the primary link provided by the website. In many cases, we run into errors on free streaming websites. So this is a pretty neat feature for the price (lol).
Ad annoyance
We rank MoviesJoy in the mid-level of ad annoyance. Users will experience several pop-ups and ads on this website. However, the ad occurrence will decrease significantly once you initiate the movie session.
Multi-click to play
Users must click on a movie several times before it starts to play. It is annoying for the audience; however, after the movie starts to play, there are no issues.
VPN compatibility
MoviesJoy is compatible with VPN connections.
Summary
MoviesJoy is a small website; however, it has a lot of content available for free. The ads are tolerable, and the watch experience is decent.
Pros
- Filters to categorize the content
- Backup link
Cons
- Legality isn’t clear
- Ads