What Happened To Fmovies?
In addition to a network of sites, whichACEnotes was “the largest piracy ring in the world,” the local police also shunted the operations of a video hosting service named Vidsrc, which was supposedly run by the same bad actors and served hundreds of other piracy outposts on the worldwide web.TorrentFreakreported that Fmovies became inaccessible earlier this year in July.
“We took down the mothership here,” Charles Rivkin, chief of ACE, toldVariety. ACE, which counts executives from Apple, Netflix, Sony, Paramount, Universal, and Warner Bros. as members of its governing board, worked with the Ministry of Public Security and the Hanoi Municipal Police to bust the services of FMovies. Following a lawsuit, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida ordered FMovies to pay $218,200 in damages to media conglomerate ABS-CBN back in 2017. But the piracy site continued operating, as usual.
A big shark goes down
For over half a decade, Fmovies was on the Notorious Markets List maintained by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), highlighting its status as an online market that propagates “substantial trademark counterfeiting or copyright piracy.” According to the 2023 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy report compiled by USTR, Fmovies commanded over 60 associated domains. It was so popular that it attracted over 9.2 million unique visitors in August last.
Reports of FMovies going offline started popping up onpopular social media appsand forums like Reddit a few weeks ago. Users started posting about potential shutdowns or server issues affecting multiple piracy websites a day ago on social media. As of press time, the Fbox website flashed a message bidding goodbye to its visitors. “Please pay for the movies/shows, that’s what we should do to show our respect to people behind movies/shows,” it adds.
ACE, on the other hand, notes that the operation was a victory for the creative community involved in making and developing content at all levels. With piracy networks closing their doors, production studios stand to draw the benefit from a fresh influx of traffic. According to aresearch paper, when pirated file-sharing site Megaupload was taken down, revenues for three major studios climbed by up to 8.5% in sales and rentals, highlighting the sheer impact of piracy and illicit sharing of copyright-protected entertainment media. While many might be sad to see Fmovies go, there are other legal andfree streaming servicesto watch content.
