The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), a partnership dedicated to protecting corporate profits and intellectual works from entertainment firms and film studios, claimed to have shut down the world’s largest pirate streaming operation.
Fmovies, based in Vietnam, was the most popular site that was shut down during the operation. ACE and the Hanoi Police worked together to take down Fmovies and other connected sites like as bflixz, flixtorz, movies7, myflixer, and aniwave. According to ACE, these sites received more than 6.7 billion visitors between January 2023 and June 2024.
“The removal of Fmovies is a stunning victory for casts, crews, writers, directors, studios, and the creative community around the world,” stated Charles Rivkin, Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association and Chairman of ACE. “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.”
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According to data analytics company SimilarWeb, Fmovies began in 2016 and peaked in 2023 as the 11th most popular website in the TV, Movies, and Streaming category. According to the data, the piracy website was the 280th most popular across all categories at the time.
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“We applaud the Hanoi Police for collaborating with ACE to bring down the world’s largest piracy ring and send a strong deterrent message in this historic case,” said Larissa Knapp, Executive Vice President and Chief Content Protection Officer for the MPA. “The removal of Fmovies demonstrates the strength of teamwork in preserving creators’ intellectual property rights around the world. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Vietnamese authorities, US Homeland Security Investigations, and the US Department of Justice’s International Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property (ICHIP) program to bring the criminal operators to justice.”
Studios and entertainment firms have been cracking down on piracy operations all around the world. Earlier this year, the operators of the unauthorized streaming services Jetflix and iStreamItAll, which allegedly made millions, were indicted and could face up to 48 years in prison. The websites were confiscated in 2019 due to copyright infringement.
The crackdown is not limited to films, shows, and visual media. The RIAA has sued internet service providers for failing to respond adequately to copyright accusations. They previously sued Cox Communications and Verizon for failing to deter piracy or respond to copyright concerns in a timely manner.
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