What is Putlocker?
Putlocker is an index of movies and TV programs that is widely used as a way to find movies and TV programs to stream online. Putlocker itself doesn’t host any content; it just provides a means to find it easily. Despite this, the original Putlocker was blocked in the UK after a High Court order.
In addition to the original Putlocker, which has changed domains several times, there are multiple mirrors online that look identical to the original.
Is Putlocker legal?
That depends on where in the world you try to access it from. The original site was blocked by ISPs in the UK following a court order. And there have been several reports of people who have used it being sent copyright infringement notices by their ISP. Clones of Putlocker were also blocked in the US, India, Canada, and Australia. However, the offense is streaming copyrighted content without permission, not accessing the site. Technically, in most countries, just accessing the site or using it to find non-copyright-protected content isn’t illegal.
Is Putlocker safe to stream?
That’s a tricky question. As we said, there are several different mirrors of Putlocker, and they are probably run by different people. Any site that provides a ‘service’ like that has to make money somehow. In the case of Putlocker and its mirrors, that is advertising. It’s possible that all the adverts it displays are legitimate and harmless. But usually, when a site or service grows on the back of enabling access to pirated content, there’s an increased risk of it hosting adware or other forms of malware.
In addition, there’s no way of knowing whether the content indexed by Putlocker is harmful. Is that link to a series of Game of Thrones really what it appears to be? Or is it a link that will lead to you downloading a nasty trojan?
The simple answer to the question ‘is Putlocker safe to watch movies on’ is that you should assume Putlocker is not safe to use and be very careful if you decide to use it.
Should I use Putlocker?
That’s a decision you will have to make for yourself. If it’s legal in the country where you live — and if it’s accessible via your ISP, it probably is — and if you put proper precautions in place, you should be fine.
However, if it has been blocked by ISPs in the country where you live, or if you just click on a link to it or one of its mirrors without taking any precautions, you may be putting your computer at risk.
What precautions should I take?
As a minimum, you should use a VPN (a virtual private network) when you access Putlocker. We recommend using ClearVPN — the first effortless VPN for a personalized online experience. ClearVPN will hide your IP address and encrypt traffic between your computer and the website. You should also use antivirus software to scan your Mac once you’ve visited the site and regularly afterward.
What should I do if I’ve already visited Putlocker?
If you haven’t noticed any unusual behavior in your Mac, such as adverts being displayed unrelated to those you would normally see or your computer running unusually slowly or erratically, there’s nothing to worry about.
As a precaution, however, you should scan the system for malware. One way to do that is to use the anti-malware tool in CleanMyMac X. It scans your Mac and compares what it finds with its database of known malware. The database is updated regularly, so it knows about the most recent adware, trojans, and other malicious code.
Download CleanMyMac X and launch it.
Choose the Malware Removal tab.
Click Scan.
Click Remove if some threats are found.
That’s it! In just a few clicks, you’ll scan your Mac for adware, malware, ransomware, spyware, and all other “wares” that can harm your Mac.
Putlocker is hugely popular, but its legality is questionable, depending on where you live. If it’s accessible via your ISP, then it’s probably safe to access from a legal perspective. However, the content it links to may not be safe — much of it is copyright-protected and just streaming it may breach copyright laws. Also, the streams may be infected with malware. If you do use Putlocker, you should also use ClearVPN and scan your Mac for malware using either CleanMyMac X or other antivirus tools.
