Movie industry touts takedown of “world’s largest” pirate streaming ring

A group representing major film studios said it collaborated with Vietnamese authorities to take down what it called “the largest pirate streaming operation in the world.”

Fmovies, which the film industry group also called the “world’s largest piracy ring,” is said to have drawn more than 6.7 billion visits between January 2023 and June 2024. Launched in 2016, the Hanoi-based outfit included pirate sites bflixz, flixtorz, movies7, myflixer, and aniwave.

“The takedown of Fmovies is a stunning victory for casts, crews, writers, directors, studios, and the creative community across the globe,” Motion Picture Association (MPA) CEO Charles Rivkin said today.

The industry announcement was made by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), an enforcement group that was created by the MPA and has members including Amazon, Apple, Comcast, Disney, Fox, HBO, Hulu, MGM, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount, Sony, and Warner Bros. In addition to leading the MPA, Rivkin is the 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,” Rivkin said.

ACE said that Vidsrc.to, “a notorious video hosting provider operated by the same suspects,” was also taken down in an operation that affected “hundreds of additional dedicated piracy sites.”

“We took down the mothership”

Rivkin claimed that the industry action will have a major effect on availability of pirated content. “We took down the mothership here,” he told Variety. “There was a time when piracy was Whac-a-Mole… Today, we go after piracy at its root.”

Another MPA official, Chief Content Protection Officer Larissa Knapp, said the group anticipates “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.”

ACE also recently announced settlements with three US-based operators requiring them to shut down IPTV services accused of “mass copyright infringement.” ACE bills itself as the “world’s leading coalition dedicated to protecting the legal creative market and reducing digital piracy.” It works closely with the US government: The National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, a US government office overseen by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, announced in 2022 that it was “embedding MPA and ACE personnel” with its team in Washington, DC.

In an April 2024 speech, Rivkin complained that American users were able to access Fmovies because of the lack of a site-blocking law. “One of the largest illegal streaming sites in the world, FMovies, sees over 160 million visits per month—and because other nations already passed site-blocking legislation, a third of that traffic still comes from the United States,” Rivkin said. In the speech, Rivkin said the MPA planned to lobby members of Congress for a law requiring Internet service providers to block piracy websites.

Film studios have also tried to force ISPs to disconnect Internet users accused of piracy. Cable firm Cox Communications recently asked the Supreme Court to overturn an appeals court ruling in a case brought by Sony, saying the ruling “would force ISPs to terminate Internet service to households or businesses based on unproven allegations of infringing activity.”