Movie studios shut down largest illegal streaming site

An association of film studios, in cooperation with the Vietnamese authorities, has succeeded in striking a blow against "the largest organization of illegal streaming in the world". This was announced by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, ACE for short, on Thursday.

In cooperation with the police in Hanoi, Vietnam, it was possible to take the Fmovies platform and associated websites offline, writes the Alliance. ACE members include Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Sky, Paramount, Sony and the German companies Constantin Film and RTL Deutschland.

"The breakup of Fmovies is a resounding victory for performers, crews, writers, directors, studios and the creative community around the world," said ACE Chairman Charles Rivkin. "With ACE's leadership and the partnership of the Ministry of Public Security and Hanoi City Police, we are cracking down on criminal activity, defending audience safety, reducing risks to millions of consumers, and protecting the rights and livelihoods of filmmakers."

Visited billions of times

Fmovies and its associated platforms illegally hosted films and series that users could watch for free. According to the ACE, the site Fmoviesz.to was particularly popular: in 2023, it is said to have ranked 280th in the global ranking of all websites by visitors.

Other platforms taken offline by the ACE and the Vietnamese police include bflixz, flixtorz, movies7, myflixer and aniwave. Together, these websites are said to have been visited 6.7 billion times between January 2023 and June 2024. The authorities have also blocked the video hosting platform Vidsrc.to, which is said to be used on hundreds of other pirate websites. The Vietnamese operators of the network have been arrested.

According to the specialist medium Torrentfreak, Fmovies had been unavailable since June. Many of the sites linked to Fmovies had tried to escape the authorities. According to Torrentfreak, they were finally taken offline on Monday.

Diplomatic efforts also appear to be behind the strike against the piracy ring. "Strengthening intellectual property rights is an important element of the comprehensive partnership between the US and Vietnam," the ACE quotes US Ambassador Marc E. Knapper in its press release. "These prosecutions demonstrate Vietnam's commitment to intellectual property rights enforcement and contribute to an economic ecosystem where creators and inventors can thrive."

(dahe)