Watching movies online has become the holy grail of Internet broadband for cinema enthusiasts who scour the web for their favorite films. There are many sites that reportedly offer online movies, but only a few that deliver what you are actually looking for instead of virus or pirated content. While there are a few sites to watch movies online for free, many good sites offer thousands of movies for a monthly fee. Some even sell a downloadable copy of the film that can be stored on a computer hard drive as a personally purchased, legal copy.

Digital Rights Management (DRM) was one of the primary concerns from content producers when broadband Internet access began to enable media companies to deliver streaming movies over the Internet to consumers. Producers wanted to ensure that royalties were paid on media and to make sure that protective measures were in place to prevent un-authorized duplication of downloaded movies. The Digital Millenium Copyright Law makes it illegal to attempt to circumvent any such protective measures that are put in place. Many sites that claim to offer "online movies" do so with pirated materials and are quickly removed or shut down. It is important when surfing the net to watch movies online that you stick with recognizable, name-brand and official sites for viewing and downloading movies - not just for the sake of DRM either, but also to protect your computer from viruses and other malware.