Those movie pirates sure are a pain in the butt - especially if you're in the movie business. It doesn't matter what arguments the pirates have: illegal downloading hurts the industry really, really bad. They claim that the major American companies are greedy and that downloading actually helps the industry make more money.
    Dream on, kids.
    If you're a small production company - and most production companies around the world ARE small - illegal downloading may be the last nail in the coffin. A small, independent movie needs to make money. If the producers get zero dollars in return, well, they can't make any more movies. I've worked for a few companies who simply had to quit making movies and cancel projects in pre-production. They deemed it to risky to actually spend money on something that way too many kids will download for free on the Internet.
    Some kids claim it's too expensive going to the movies. Well, if you only quit getting the movies for free and actually saw MORE movies in theaters, the tickets would have been cheaper. And when it comes to DVD - hey, these days DVD:s are extremely cheap in most countries. Why download a crappy bootleg version, when you can get a perfect copy with a nice sleeve and bonus material for a couple of bucks? I just don't get it.
    Okay.
    So you shouldn't watch movies online? Of course you shall! If you do it legally! There are of course lots of sites out there where you pay for legal, downloadable or streaming movies - but there are several alternatives if you want to watch movies for free. Which you do.
    Now, many sites featuring free, streaming and/or downloadable movies claim that everything there is legal and in public domain. Well, in many cases, that isn't the case. If you find a well-known movie, made the last twenty-thirty years or so, from a major company, rest assure it isn't in public domain.
    But if you're looking for old black and white classics, obscure B-movies, weird cult movies, well, you can spend months, if not years, watching feature films online for free without having the cops knocking on your door.
    Here are some of my favorite PD sites:

ARCHIVE.ORG
Of course. The biggest source when it comed to PD movies. Here you'll find hundreds and hundreds of movies, or thousands of you're looking for shorts and TV shows as well. The movies here are usually available in several formats for downloading, as well as a streaming version. Now, it DOES happen that a movie or two that isn't in public domain pops up here, but that's because the content is uploaded by the users.

PUBLICDOMAINFLICKS.COM
This is a great site with hundreds of old titles, and just like at Archive.org, you can either stream them or download them in different formats. The only thing I don't like here, is that the movies aren't divided into genres, only chronologically or alphabetical, which makes it a tad hard to browse if you're looking for something special.

PUBLIC DOMAIN MOVIE TORRENTS
A rather ugly and messy site with hundreds of movies downloadable in several formats, but you can't stream them. However, there are a few movies you don't find anywhere else online.

CLASSIC CINEMA ONLINE
Here's a really good - and good looking - site, featuring a huge amount of streaming movies in lots of genres. It also seems like there are a few movies only available there - unfortunately, there are also a handful movies that AREN'T in public domain, like the Sergio Leone and Sergio Martino spaghetti westerns.

YOUTUBE
Several major production companies and well-established DVD distributors have started uploading movies on YouTube, where you can stream them in HD quality for free. This is a great initiative - too bad that way too many movies and TV shows aren't available for viewing outside of the U.S.A. The titles show up, but don't stream. There's still a helluva lot to watch here - stuff you'll only find here.
The rest of YouTube is of course also crammed with full feature films, but at least 75% of them are uploaded illegally and sport rather crappy picture quality.

HOUSE OF STREAMING MOVIES
This blog actually belongs to me... I created this recently, mainly to amuse myself and to have somewhere where I can collect favorite movies - or just interesting or weird ones - in one place. But putting them in a blog does of course mean that everybody can go there and watch them as well. The movies in my blog were found on the above mentioned sites plus several more, to which they link. The films are streamed in the blog, but the videos are embedded and not actually uploaded to my blog. House of Streaming Movies is a great place to start if you're looking for stuff I concider classics or cool.