Did you get what you paid for? Payment probably wasn’t a consideration if you’ve been visiting 123movies (aka GoMovies) over the past few years.
But if you log on this weekend to download My Girl 2 (solid film, though not a patch on the original – 4 stars) you’ll be met with a message announcing the site’s demise.
“We’ve been providing links to movies and shows for years. Now it’s time to say goodbye. Thank you for being our friends and thanks for staying with us that long.
“PS: Please pay for the movies/shows, that’s what we should do to show our respect to people behind the movies/shows.”
No doubt this about turn comes after the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) called them “the most popular illegal site in the world”, which isn’t the type of press criminals tend to court.
“Right now, the most popular illegal site in the world, 123movies.to [at this point], is operated from Vietnam, and has 98 million visitors a month,” said MPAA executive vice president and chief of global content protection Jan van Voorn.
“There are more services like this. Vietnamese people need to understand that making a movie is not free of charge. Companies have to pay a lot to bring these works to the audience.”
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Blanket racism aside, he has a point: in this world of easy and cheap streaming options, why not get what you actually pay for?
