Dismantling the largest pirated film ring in Vietnam

On August 29, the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), whose managing members include Netflix, Apple TV+, Amazon and Walt Disney Studios, said it had coordinated with Hanoi Police to shut down Fmovies and its affiliated websites.

ACE said the network, which included various websites such as Bflixz, Flixtorz, Movies7 and Myflixer, was believed to have created "the world's largest pirated streaming operation", with more than 6.7 billion visits between January 2023 and June 2024.

“We are combating criminal activity, protecting audience safety, reducing risk to tens of millions of consumers, and protecting the rights and livelihoods of content creators,” Charles Rivkin, President of ACE, toldVariety, emphasizing that the takedown of Fmovies is "to find the root of copyright infringement".

Fmovies is described by ACE as the largest platform for sharing pirated movies and TV shows. It was established in 2016. According to SimilarWeb, at its peak in 2023, it was the 11th most popular website globally in the TV, movies and streaming category. The US was the market with the largest traffic to the service.

On its website, Fmovies emphasizes its free nature, while also boasting that it is "a very difficult target for law enforcement" because no one knows the origin or where the service is hosted.

The system has more than 60 related domains, according to statistics from the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). Rivkin said many people accessed and used the service from Fmovies without knowing it "because it was made to look like Netflix."

On the morning of August 30, the website with the highest traffic in this system, fmovies24, was no longer active. However, some smaller sites were not completely shut down.

PageHollywood ReporterPolice have arrested two people linked to Fmovies, the operation also shut down video hosting provider Vidsrc.to and affiliated websites, which were also operated by the group, the statement said.

Varietyquoted Ms. Ngo Phuong Lan, President of the Vietnam Film Promotion and Development Association VFDA, affirming that protecting intellectual property rights is an important factor for the success of the industry, and welcomed the efforts of ACE, in cooperation with Vietnamese authorities, in fighting against the violations of the Fmovies management group.