Hollywood Takes Another Step in Fight Against Movie Piracy
By Movieguide® Contributor
Two suspects in collaboration with an illegal movie pirating website called Fmovies have been arrested thanks to ACE (Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment).
ACE is “a coalition of over 50 major entertainment companies and production studios including Amazon, Disney, and Warner Bros.”
The group worked with Hanoi police to take down “the largest pirate streaming operation in the world.”
“A stunning victory for casts, crews, writers, directors, studios, and the creative community across the globe,” MPA CEO and ACE Chairman Charles Rivkin said.
The operation didn’t take down just one website but rather a collaboration between multiple illegal content distributors.
The Hollywood Reporter said, “With sites including bflixz, flixtorz, movies7, myflixer and aniwave in addition to Fmovies, the operation attracted more than 6.7 billion visits between January 2023 and June 2024, ACE says.”
The crackdown is thankfully “sending a powerful deterrent message,” MPA’s chief content protection officer Larissa Knapp added.
Fmovies started in 2016 and contains other illegal streaming platforms including Aniwave and AnimeFlix. In the wake of the arrests, AnimeFlix’s website now states that its goal is to create “better products that provide an improved user experience and fostering competition to drive the market to enhance products.”
It has also conveniently added a message that reads, “If possible, please use legal paid services. It’s something we should do to show our respect for creators and content producers.”
Piracy is a major crime punishable by jail time.
“Piracy includes making illegal copies of copyrighted music, games, software, electronic books, and movies — or streaming that content without permission…United States Code Title 17 Sections 501 and 506 are federal statutes that authorize severe civil and criminal penalties for the unauthorized reproduction, distribution, rental, or digital transmission of copyrighted sound recordings,” Business Insider said.
Movieguide® previously reported on Hollywood’s attempts to curb piracy:
According to the Motion Picture Association (MPA), piracy costs the movie industry $1 billion every year, but the association hopes to stem this issue by introducing new laws that would fight stolen content.
MPA Chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin announced that he is working with Congress to fight piracy by requiring internet service providers to disallow access to sites that distribute stolen content.
While legislation like this has been suggested in the past, it has been shot down due to concerns of free speech violations. However, Rivkin believes it is clear that the 1st Amendment does not protect the right to steal other people’s work. Instead, lawmakers are enabling criminals by allowing piracy websites to continue to flourish.
“The perpetrators are real-life mobsters,” he said. “Many of whom engage in child pornography, prostitution, drug trafficking, and so many other societal ills…There are no gray areas here.”
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