While laws vary by country, streaming pirated content is generally considered illegal in regions like the EU and the US. In the EU, court rulings have established that streaming pirated media is as legally problematic as downloading it.

Putlocker was originally founded in the United Kingdom around 2011 and quickly grew into one of the top streaming sites globally.

The site itself generally does not host the files. Instead, it provides links to content uploaded by users to third-party file-hosting services.