It has been a bad day for FMovies, which is being described as “the largest pirate streaming operation in the world.” The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment came down hard on the piracy site with the help of the Hanoi police to shut down FMovies and its affiliated sites for good.
Per Variety, the ACE worked in conjunction with the Hanoi police and Vietnamese law enforcement to bring an end to FMovies and other streaming sites engaged in illegal piracy activity. Other sites included in the bust were bflixz, flixtorz, movies7, myflixer and aniwave, which attracted more than 6.7 billion visits between January 2023 and June 2024, according to the findings of the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment.
The FMovies Bust Also Resulted in Two Men Being Arrested
FMovies was based in Vietnam, and the sting resulted in two Vietnamese men being arrested by Hanoi authorities for their connection to the site. Also taken down was Vidsrc.to and any sites associated with the video hosting provider. As of now, the two Vietnamese men have not been charged, but Charles Rivkin, the chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association and the chairman of ACE, declared that the actions taken against these sites were, “a stunning victory for casts, crews, writers, directors, studios, and the creative community across the globe.” Larissa Knapp, EVP and content protection officer for the MPA, had this to say:
“We look forward to the ongoing joint efforts with Vietnamese authorities, U.S. Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Department of Justice International Property program to bring the criminal operators to justice.”
The ACE has governing members that belong to Netflix, Walt Disney Studios, Amazon, and Apple TV+ and their primary job is to fight internet piracy of their content. ACE works on the domestic and global front via law enforcement and goes the extra mile by also taking action through litigation when piracy is discovered. FMovies have been under the MPA’s radar for a while, which also put them in the sights of the ACE.
FMovies was known to house recently released films and TV shows, making it easy for individuals to stream the content online. In a bit of a bold move considering the illegal practices, FMovies tagline read, “Just a better place for watching online movies for free.” According to Rivkin, FMovies had many domains, which made it hard to make sure everything was taken down, but this latest bust likely means it’s the official end for the illegal streaming platform.
According to Rivkin, piracy services have seen a steep decline since at least 2017, when he first joined the MPA. During the start of his tenure, there were a reported 1,444 IPTV piracy services in North America, but that has decreased to just 220 this year. Calling this latest victory “a real turning point,” Rivkin went on to say, “Our fight isn’t over and our fight will probably never be over, but I think we are winning.”