Putlocker describes different online file hosting index websites used for streaming entertainment media, especially movies and tv series, totally free. The initial website came from the UK as early as 2011, and grew to get millions of daily visitors after the shutdown of Megaupload. In May 2016, the site was obstructed in the UK by a High Court order, [2] and at its peak prior to a momentary closure in late 2016, Alexa Internet listed Putlocker as ranking amongst the leading 250 most-visited sites worldwide. Putlocker has been reported by the Movie Association of America (MPAA) as a significant piracy danger.
Putlocker's domain address has changed numerous times throughout its history, with a number of URLs bearing the Putlocker name being suspended or seized. It is not openly recognized whether an official Putlocker website kept by the initial team remains available online, however a minimum of fifty mirror or proxy websites, much of which utilize the Putlocker name, have actually been determined.
Putlocker came from the UK under the URL putlocker.com. In early January 2012, the site received about 800,000 visitors a day, but after the popular site Megaupload was closed down due to copyright infringement, Putlocker began getting around 1.6 million visitors a day The website's operations officer, Adrian Petroff, found Megaupload's closure stressing, mentioning "who needs SOPA when a studio exec can make a wish/hit list and websites 'willingly' shut down?"
In March 2012, Putlocker was identified by Alfred Perry, vice president for around the world material security at Paramount Pictures, as one of the "top 5 rogue cyberlocker services". [8] The site's URL was altered to putlocker.bz, an address which was seized by the Cops Copyright Criminal Offense Unit of the UK in June 2014, and was subsequently altered to putlocker.is, a domain located in Iceland.
2016-- present.
From around early October 2016, the putlocker.is address displayed a mistake specifying that the website's host service was unattainable. [10] Around this time, the Movie Association of America (MPAA) reported Putlocker to the Office of the United States Trade Agent as a piracy risk. The MPAA revealed that Putlocker ran from Vietnam, which its servers were hosted by the Swiss company Personal Layer.
Prior to its closure, Putlocker movies putlocker.is was noted among the 250 leading sites worldwide and the top 150 in the United States, according to Alexa information. A mirror site under the address putlocker.today appeared shortly after the presumed termination of putlocker.is, and on October 17, 2016, an address under the name putlocker9.com was reported to be offered.
On 2 November 2016, the putlocker.is address became active once again, redirecting its users to the updated URL putlockers.ch.On 27 February 2017, the putlockers.ch address was suspended after a judgment by a Tribunal d'arrondissement of Luxembourg in favour of the Belgian Entertainment Association, and the URL transferred ownership to EuroDNS. The primary legal officer of EuroDNS, Luc Seufer, specified that EuroDNS is required to "prevent any 'reactivation' of this domain [putlockers.ch] till its expiration date". Following the seizure of the putlockers.ch address, the formerly utilized putlocker.is domain was made practical once again.
In March 2017, it was reported that Ted Osius, then United States Ambassador to Vietnam, held a conference with Truong Minh Tuan, Vietnam's Minister of Info and Communications, throughout which Osius advised for the criminal prosecution of Putlocker, together with the websites 123Movies and KissCartoon, for copyright infringement.
Not long after, putlocker.is, which altered to putlockertv.is and consequently putlockers.cc, was reported to reroute visitors to a scamming site. [16] In May 2017, at least three working sites bearing the Putlocker name were known to be readily available: putlocker.rs, with a Serbian high-level domain (TLD), putlockertv.ist, with an Istanbulite TLD, and putlockerhd.is, with an Icelandic one.
In July 2017, the International Service Times reported that "15% of web users in the UK are either infringing copyright through streaming or unlawful downloads, with pirated TV material mostly accessed through Kodi (16%) or Putlocker (17%)". [18] In August 2017, Justice John Nicholas of the Federal Court of Australia bought Australian internet service companies to block access to 42 piracy sites in a case brought by Town Roadshow, with Putlocker, KissCartoon, and GoMovies being amongst those bought to be obstructed.
In June 2018, Trevon Maurice Franklin of Fresno, California pleaded guilty to breaking federal copyright law back in February 2016, when he downloaded the superhero movie Deadpool from Putlocker and then uploaded it to Facebook eight days after the film was launched theatrically in the United States. [20] As a result, the movie was seen over 6 million times for totally free, with the total retail value of the copies being estimated at around $2,500. [21] U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt set 27 September as the sentencing date for the federal class-A misdemeanor, which brings a possible penalty of as much as one year in prison, in addition to a $100,000 fine. [20] After missing out on the September 27 sentencing hearing, Franklin was sentenced in October to 24 days in federal detention followed by a year of monitored release, including 20 hours of community service per week.