The Motion Picture Association (MPA) recently announced a significant win against online piracy, claiming it dismantled the largest pirate streaming operation in the world, Fmovies. The industry group collaborated with Vietnamese authorities to take down the Hanoi-based outfit, which included associated pirate sites such as bflixz, flixtorz, movies7, myflixer, and aniwave. According to the MPA, Fmovies attracted over 6.7 billion visits between January 2023 and June 2024.
MPA CEO Charles Rivkin characterized the takedown as a "stunning victory" for the creative industry, emphasizing its positive impact on actors, writers, directors, and studios worldwide. The announcement was made by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), an enforcement group formed by the MPA and supported by industry giants including Amazon, Apple, Disney, Netflix, and Sony. ACE, led by Rivkin, coordinated the operation with the Ministry of Public Security and Hanoi Municipal Police.
"We took down the mothership here," Rivkin told Variety, adding that the action will have a significant impact on the availability of pirated content. "There was a time when piracy was Whac-a-Mole… Today, we go after piracy at its root."
In addition to Fmovies, the operation also targeted Vidsrc.to, a notorious video hosting provider, dismantling "hundreds of additional dedicated piracy sites." Chief Content Protection Officer Larissa Knapp indicated that future efforts would involve ongoing collaboration with Vietnamese authorities and US agencies, including the Department of Justice and Homeland Security Investigations.
ACE has been actively pursuing other piracy operations, recently securing settlements with three US-based IPTV services accused of mass copyright infringement. This initiative follows the MPA’s ongoing cooperation with the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, a US government body overseen by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The center announced in 2022 that MPA and ACE personnel would be embedded within its team in Washington, DC.
In an April speech, Rivkin highlighted the need for US legislation to block access to piracy sites, citing that significant traffic to Fmovies originated from the United States due to the absence of site-blocking laws. The MPA plans to lobby Congress for such measures.
Efforts to combat piracy have faced legal challenges, with ISPs like Cox Communications recently petitioning the Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that would require them to disconnect users accused of infringement based on unverified claims.
The full details of the takedown can be found in the original Ars Technica article.