Fmovies, a Massive Internet Piracy Ring, Is Shut Down by Police in Vietnam
variety.comTodd Spangler NY Digital Editor 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.
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