A significant victory against online piracy has been claimed by a coalition of major studios, including Netflix and Walt Disney Studios, following the takedown of Fmovies, one of the world's largest illegal streaming operations. The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) announced that it collaborated with Vietnamese law enforcement to shut down Fmovies and several affiliated sites.
On Thursday, ACE revealed that it had worked with police in Hanoi to dismantle Fmovies and its network of related sites, which included bflixz, flixtorz, movies7, myflixer, and aniwave. Together, these sites constituted “the largest pirate streaming operation in the world,” according to ACE. Between January 2023 and June 2024, the operation attracted over 6.7 billion visits, highlighting the extensive reach of the illegal service.
The crackdown also extended to Vidsrc.to, a video hosting provider linked to the same individuals behind Fmovies. Vietnamese authorities arrested two men in connection with the operation, though charges have yet to be filed.
Charles Rivkin, chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and chairman of ACE, lauded the operation as “a stunning victory for casts, crews, writers, directors, studios, and the creative community across the globe.” Larissa Knapp, executive vice president and chief content protection officer for the MPA, echoed this sentiment, stating that the takedown sent a “powerful deterrent message.” Knapp also emphasized the ongoing collaboration with Vietnamese authorities, U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, and the U.S. Department of Justice's International Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property (ICHIP) program to ensure that the criminal operators are brought to justice.
ACE, which includes governing members such as Netflix, Apple TV+, Amazon, and The Walt Disney Studios, works closely with law enforcement agencies both domestically and internationally to combat online piracy. In addition to legal action, the group frequently issues cease-and-desist letters to infringing parties. Its international partners include BBC Studios, Canal+ Groupe, Televisa, MBC Group, and RTL.
Fmovies has long been a target of the MPA, with Rivkin noting that a third of its traffic came from the U.S. in a 2024 speech at CinemaCon. The site has been repeatedly listed on the U.S. Trade Representative's “Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy,” alongside other notorious sites like ThePirateBay, Sci-Hub, and 1337X. According to SimilarWeb, a data aggregation company, Fmoviesz.to was the 280th most popular website in the world across all categories in 2023.
In recent days, the shutdown has sparked conversations on subreddits dedicated to Fmovies and piracy, with users lamenting the loss of their favorite streaming sites. One user pleaded, “Can anyone message me with any decent sites please!! I don't really wanna sit and have to watch YouTube all day every day. I was literally in the middle of watching Call the Midwife when it got removed.”
Another user commented on the widespread impact of the shutdowns, saying, “Between last night and this morning, everyone woke up to the streaming apocalypse of their beloved sites being deleted by Uncle Sam. Anyone who's posted a link or name-dropped a site on this page, congrats, it's your fault.”
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