In a significant blow to global film piracy, an international anti-piracy coalition has successfully dismantled Fmovies, a vast illegal streaming network based in Vietnam. This decisive action, announced on Thursday, marks a substantial victory for the entertainment industry and highlights ongoing efforts to combat digital piracy.
The operation, led by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), a coalition that includes major Hollywood studios and streaming giants like Netflix, Apple TV+, and Disney, saw collaboration with Vietnamese police in Hanoi to shut down Fmovies and its related sites. This crackdown also extended to video hosting provider Vidsrc.to, which was found to be operating under the same network of offenders.
Two Vietnamese nationals were arrested in connection with the operation, though formal charges have yet to be filed, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. Charles Rivkin, chairman of the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and ACE, hailed the shutdown as a landmark achievement. Rivkin described it as “a stunning victory for casts, crews, writers, directors, studios, and the creative community across the globe,” signalling a significant step in the fight against piracy.
Rivkin remarked, “We’ve taken down the mothership here. Piracy was once a game of Whac-a-Mole; today, we’re addressing it at its root.” This sentiment underscores the coalition’s commitment to eradicating piracy at its source, rather than merely addressing its symptoms.
ACE’s members, including industry leaders such as Netflix, Apple TV+, Amazon, and Walt Disney Studios, have been at the forefront of anti-piracy efforts. Larissa Knapp, a senior executive at the MPA, stressed that this operation serves as a powerful deterrent and affirmed their commitment to continued cooperation with international authorities. She noted, “We look forward to ongoing joint efforts with Vietnamese authorities, US Homeland Security Investigations, and the US Department of Justice International Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property (ICHIP) program to bring the criminal operators to justice.”
The takedown included other notable piracy sites like Bflixz, Flixtorz, Movies7, and Myflixer, collectively identified as the largest pirate streaming network globally, with over 6.7 billion visits recorded from January 2023 to June 2024. At its peak, Fmovies was ranked the 11th most popular website in the TV, movies, and streaming category, according to SimilarWeb data.
Fmovies had been on the US Trade Representative’s (USTR) “notorious markets” list for counterfeiting and piracy since 2017, with the USTR’s latest report linking it to over 60 domains involved in significant piracy operations. Rivkin highlighted that many users of such piracy sites are often unaware of the illegality of their actions, as these sites frequently mimic the professional appearance of legitimate platforms like Netflix.
In support of these efforts, Marc E Knapper, the US ambassador to Vietnam, emphasised that strengthening intellectual property rights is crucial to the US-Vietnam Comprehensive Partnership. He stated, “These prosecutions demonstrate Vietnam’s commitment to intellectual property rights enforcement, contributing to an economic ecosystem where creators and inventors can thrive.”
This operation represents a major step forward in the global battle against film piracy and underscores the importance of international collaboration in protecting intellectual property.
