Massive Internet Piracy Ring Fmovies Shut Down by Police in Vietnam

Fmovies — described as the biggest pirate streaming operator in the world — has been shut down by police in Vietnam, working in coordination with the MPA-led industry antipiracy group Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment.

The takedown by Hanoi Police disabled Fmovies and hundreds of its affiliated piracy sites. Fmovies was launched in 2016 and encompassed sites including bflixz, movies7, myflixer and heymovies. The Vidsrc.to domain, which according to the ACE was “a notorious video hosting provider operated by the same suspects,” was also taken down. Between January 2023 and June 2024, the Fmovies syndicate attracted more than 6.7 billion visits, according to ACE.

“We took down the mothership here,” Charles Rivkin, CEO of the Motion Picture Association and chairman of ACE, told Variety. “There was a time when piracy was Whac-a-Mole… Today, we go after piracy at its root.”

At its peak in 2023, Fmovies was the 11th most popular website globally in the TV, movies and streaming category, according to data analytics company SimilarWeb. Fmovies has been listed on the Office of the U.S. Trade Trade Representative’s “notorious markets” list for counterfeiting and piracy since 2017. According to the USTR’s most recent report, Fmovies reportedly has more than 60 associated domains used by “significant piracy operations.”

Rivkin called the takedown of Fmovies “a stunning victory for casts, crews, writers, directors, studios and the creative community across the globe.”

“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.

MPA has long claimed that shutting down piracy sites results in a corresponding increase in traffic to legitimate streaming sites. The organization has cited a 2013 study from Carnegie Mellon researchers estimating that over an 18-week period after the shutdown of file-sharing site Megaupload the prior year, two studios’ digital movie revenue across 12 countries was 6.5%-8.5% higher than it would have been if Megaupload had not been shuttered.

In many cases, consumers who visit piracy sites like those operated by Fmovies “don’t even realize that it’s wrong,” Rivkin said. “Some of these sites are as clean and beautiful as, say, a Netflix. It seems to be too good to be true — and it is.” He added that MPA is lobbying for U.S. legislation that would allow for nationwide blocking of piracy sites, similar to laws on the books in more than 60 other countries.

Earlier this summer, Rivkin met with Nguyen Quoc Dzung, Vietnam’s ambassador to the U.S., to talk about “how to strengthen the bonds between our creative economies and protect the livelihoods of the creative workforce driving this shared growth,” Rivkin wrote in a post on X.

Larissa Knapp, a former high-ranking FBI official who recently joined the MPA as executive vice president and chief content protection officer this year, said the Fmovies takedown sends “a powerful deterrent message in this milestone case.” She said the trade group is looking forward to continued collaboration with Vietnamese authorities, U.S. Homeland Security Investigations and the Justice Department’s International Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property program “to bring the criminal operators to justice.”

Marc E. Knapper, U.S. ambassador to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, said in a statement: “Strengthening intellectual property rights is an important element of the U.S.-Vietnam Comprehensive Partnership. These prosecutions demonstrate Vietnam’s commitment to intellectual property rights enforcement, contributing to an economic ecosystem where creators and inventors can thrive.”

Ngo Phuong Lan, chairwoman of the Vietnam Film Development Association (VFDA), commented, “The Vietnamese movie industry is at a pivotal stage of development, transitioning from a state-subsidized production model to a rapidly growing phase driven by private-sector involvement… Intellectual property rights protection is a crucial element for our industry’s success. The VFDA strongly applauds the efforts of ACE, in collaboration with Vietnamese authorities, to combat the serious infringing activities of the Fmovies operators.”

In December 2023, MPA senior executive VP and global general counsel Karyn Temple gave a demo of the Fmovies site during her testimony in a House Judiciary IP subcommittee hearing to highlight the dangers and prevalence of digital piracy.

Members of the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, established in 2017, includes more than 50 media and entertainment companies and associations worldwide. The current governing board members for ACE are Amazon, Apple TV+, Netflix, Paramount Global, Sony Pictures, Universal Studios, Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros. Discovery.