The Hollywood Reporter: Vietnamese police dismantle world's largest pirated film ring

The International Coalition Against Piracy and Vietnamese police have just dismantled Fmovies, one of the world's largest pirated film networks.

Fmovies, a major internet piracy ring, has been shut down by Vietnamese police.

According to The Guardian , on August 29, the International Anti-Piracy Coalition, consisting of major Hollywood studios, announced that Fmovies - a major illegal movie streaming network and platform based in Vietnam, had been dismantled.

The Fmovies crackdown has a big meaning

Sharing with Tuoi Tre Online , Dr. Ngo Phuong Lan - President of the Vietnam Association for the Promotion of Cinema Development - said that in the context of Vietnam's current efforts to build a film industry, the destruction of this illegal film network has great significance.

Ms. Lan explained that protecting intellectual property rights - film copyright is a very important and indispensable link in the closed "cycle" of the film industry including film creation - production - dissemination, film distribution - film copyright protection, then reinvestment in film creation and production.

"If the creative achievements and "assets" invested in making the film are stolen by the above lines, it will not only cause damage to the owners of the stolen property but also affect domestic and foreign investment in cinema, hindering and even sabotaging the construction of the film industry in Vietnam," said a representative of the Vietnam Association for the Promotion of Cinema Development.

Hanoi police busted the illegal film network Fmovies

The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), including Netflix, Apple TV+, Amazon and Walt Disney Studios... has coordinated with Hanoi police to destroy Fmovies and its affiliated websites.

Fmovies interface - Photo: DeviantArt

Statistics from ACE , Fmovies and a group of infringing websites such as Bflixz, Flixtorz, Movies7 and Myflixer, have created the world's largest pirated streaming operation, with more than 6.7 billion visits from January 2023 to June 2024.

The takedown also shut down video hosting service provider Vidsrc.to and its affiliate sites, which were run by the same group of people behind Fmovies.

Separately, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Hanoi police have detained two Vietnamese men linked to Fmovies, although they have not been charged.

Fmovies has all the popular movies currently in theaters.

According to information from the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), Fmovies' system has more than 60 related domains. This system has been the target of ACE's monitoring for a long time.

“These efforts mark an incredible victory for casts, crews, writers, directors, studios and the creative community around the world,” said Charles Rivkin, president and CEO of the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and chairman of ACE.

During his earlier CinemaCon speech, Mr. Rivkin noted that about a third of the site's traffic comes from the United States. He hadn't realized it, since the site is designed so similarly to Netflix.

Fmovies has been included in the Office of the United States Trade Representative's annual review of markets notorious for counterfeiting and piracy for several consecutive years.

Continue to fight against copyright infringement

Larissa Knapp, executive vice president and director of content protection at the MPA, told The Guardian that the crackdown sent a strong deterrent message.

“We look forward to continuing to work closely with Vietnamese authorities, the US Homeland Security Investigations Agency and the US Department of Justice’s International Cybersecurity and Intellectual Property Program (ICHP) to bring the perpetrators to justice,” said Larissa Knapp.

In addition, other ACE members such as BBC Studios, Canal+ Groupe, Televisa, MBC Group and RTL are also working with various law enforcement agencies to combat online entertainment piracy, pursuing lawsuits; sending cease and desist letters and seeking to crack down.

Fmovies is one of the largest movie and TV show content sharing platforms, built since 2016. According to SimilarWeb statistics, in 2023, Fmovies was the 11th most popular website globally in the TV, movies and streaming category. Although Fmovies has stopped operating, some smaller websites in the system have not been completely taken down.

Tuoitre.vn

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/bao-the-hollywood-reporter-canh-sat-viet-nam-triet-pha-duong-day-phim-lau-lon-nhat-the-gioi-20240830124341521.htm#content-1