Pirate sites tend to come and go but in recent months, significant shutdowns have been more frequent than usual.
Fmovies is one of the most prominent casualties. Founded in 2016, the pirate streaming site had been a thorn in Hollywood’s side for years. While rightsholders typically avoid naming pirate sites in public, fearing an indirect promotional effect, Fmovies was a recent exception.
To illustrate how brazen the platform had become, lawmakers in U.S. Congress received a demo of the site late last year courtesy of MPA Senior Executive Vice President, Karyn Temple. This showed how easily the latest movies and TV shows could be illegally streamed inside one of the country’s best-secured buildings.
Something had to be done to prevent this from happening and the MPA already had a solution in mind; site blocking. However, since implementing new legislation is a slow process, that raised the prospect of Fmovies and a myriad of related streaming portals continuing to operate.
Fmovies Empire Falls Apart
Ultimately, however, the Fmovies empire eventually began to crumble. Early cracks appeared in June when the stream of new content stopped appearing on the site. A few weeks later, Fmovies disappeared entirely, without any official explanation from its operators.
The shutdown triggered a domino effect. Several other streaming portals with connections to Fmovies ostensibly shut down too, redirecting to ‘new’ streaming sites instead. A few days ago and without warning, those sites also disappeared.
One of the Fmovies sister sites, Bflixz.to, posted an announcement that was a one-to-one copy of a shutdown notice posted by 123Movies six years ago. That’s no coincidence perhaps; all these sites have connections to Vietnam and Fmovies gained popularity after 123Movies threw in the towel.
The pirate site ‘massacre’ of the past few weeks wasn’t limited to platforms offering traditional movies and TV shows. The same piracy empire included AniWave; a massive anime piracy site with more than 170 million monthly visits at its peak. All told, billions of pirate site visits were wiped out overnight.
ACE and Vietnam Take Credit
While the significant scope of these events was clear, who or what was responsible wasn’t immediately confirmed. The operators of these sites wouldn’t shut down their profitable businesses without a very good reason; significant legal pressure, perhaps, or potentially even worse.
Over the past few weeks the MPA and ACE, who represent various major rightsholders including Hollywood studios and Netflix, made no comment. However, their frequent visits to Vietnam suggested that they probably knew more. Those suspicions are confirmed today.
In a press release, the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) confirmed that they collaborated with the Hanoi Police to shut down the Fmovies operation. This includes related sites such as AniWave, Bflixz, Flixtorz, Movies7, and Myflixer, as we highlighted in our earlier coverage.
According to ACE, the operation was the largest piracy ring in the world, attracting more than 6.7 billion visits between January 2023 and June 2024. The Fmovies team was also linked to video hosting provider Vidsrc.to, which went offline this week, impacting hundreds of smaller movie pirate sites that used the service.
Charles Rivkin, MPA CEO and Chairman of ACE, says that the takedown of Fmovies is “a stunning victory for casts, crews, writers, directors, studios, and the creative community across the globe.”
“With the leadership of ACE and the partnership of the Ministry of Public Security and the Hanoi Municipal Police, we are countering criminal activity, defending the safety of audiences, reducing risks posed to tens of millions of consumers, and protecting the rights and livelihoods of creators,” Rivkin says.
Bringing the Operators to Justice
While it’s confirmed that the Fmovies ring was taken down by Vietnamese law enforcement with support from ACE, the press release doesn’t mention any arrests, names, or any other relevant details.
Larissa Knapp, MPA Executive Vice President and Chief Content Protection, does praise the international collaboration, however. The former FBI executive says that she’s looking forward to future enforcement efforts where Vietnamese and U.S. authorities bundle their powers.
“The takedown of Fmovies is a testament to the power of collaboration in protecting the intellectual property rights of creators around the world,” Knapp says.
“We look forward to ongoing joint efforts with Vietnamese authorities, U.S. Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Department of Justice International Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property (ICHIP) program to bring the criminal operators to justice.”
The latter comment is intriguing. It’s not entirely clear whether it refers to Fmovies directly but if that turns out to be the case, it could mean that not all of those involved with the piracy ring have been identified or caught.
Vietnam / U.S. Collaboration
The press release does signal that after years of lobbying, Hollywood and other U.S. rightsholders are working closely with Vietnamese authorities to tackle the thriving pirate site rings in the Asian country.
This involves U.S. diplomatic efforts too, as a comment from U.S. Ambassador Marc E. Knapper on the Fmovies action makes clear.
“Strengthening intellectual property rights is an important element of the U.S.-Vietnam Comprehensive Partnership,” Knapper said
“These prosecutions demonstrate Vietnam’s commitment to intellectual property rights enforcement, contributing to an economic ecosystem where creators and inventors can thrive.”
The press release adds more collaborative color with a comment from Madam Ngo Phuong Lan, the Chairwoman of the Vietnam Film Development Association (VFDA). She stresses that the Vietnamese movie industry is transitioning and that proper copyright protection is vital to its success.
“The Vietnamese movie industry is at a pivotal stage of development, transitioning from a state-subsidized production model to a rapidly growing phase driven by private sector involvement,” Ngo Phuong Lan says.
“To achieve fast and sustainable growth and integrate into the global film industry, it is essential that we follow the right path. Intellectual property rights protection is a crucial element for our industry’s success.”
Vietnam’s Upcoming U.S. Cinema Promotion Program
Highlighting benefits for Vietnam shows that this enforcement action doesn’t only impact U.S. rightsholders. In this regard, it’s worth mentioning another collaboration, which remains unmentioned in today’s press release.
According to documents published by Vietnamese authorities, the country is currently planning a Cinema and Tourism Promotion Program in the United States.
Vietnam’s U.S. Tourism Cinema Promotion program
Hollywood can play an important role in drawing more American tourists to Vietnam. By choosing Vietnam as a film location, more people may be inclined to visit, for example. This plan is now underway and events in Los Angeles are scheduled for later this year.
Translated, Vietnam’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism describes the goal as follows:
“Take advantage of the prestige and influence of Hollywood partners to organize the Program, attract public attention, and widely promote Vietnamese tourism. Promote tourism promotion through cinema, effectively exploit tourism from cinema, create a breakthrough in tourism promotion and promotion.”
The Motion Picture Association, under which ACE is managed, is in the loop too. According to the paperwork, an unnamed representative of the movie industry group is scheduled to give a speech at the event.
How the MPA will benefit from this tourist promotion program remains undiscussed. That being said, with the Fmovies piracy ring effectively shut down, the event will likely be quite a cheerful one. That may even have been part of the plan.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
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