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What Killed Fmovies? Death By a 1000 Cuts, One Killer Blow, Or Possibly Both
The sudden closure of RARBG in 2023 left many unanswered questions. However, after studying political events in Bulgaria and the United States, it was possible to provide plausible information on potential contributing factors. Similar questions are now being asked about Fmovies. Did it die from a single blow or collapse under the cumulative effects of many?
Some may measure the importance of Fmovies by highlighting its popularity. With an estimated 190 million visits in March 2024, the argument sits on solid ground.
Others may point towards the site’s presentation; glossy, informational, responsive, and arguably even better presented than platforms operated by its legal competitors. Or maybe the site’s almost flawless uptime record was its most impressive feature; if a site is offline, nothing else matters.
The truth is that all of these things contributed to the importance of Fmovies; but most important of all was its ability to maintain such high standards under well-documented adverse conditions. When the MPA chose Fmovies to be the focal point, the prime example, the poster boy to show why the United States must implement site-blocking, that arguably made Fmovies the most important pirate site of recent times.
Hollywood, In the Dining Room, With the Lead Pipe
As things stand today, Fmovies appears to be dead. The site first showed signs of distress around June 22/23 when it stopped updating with new content. Around noon on July 16, everything went black, and that was that.
Based purely on motive, many would consider Hollywood the prime suspect. The major studios have wanted Fmovies gone for a very long time, everyone knows that. But with the site on the cusp of playing the starring role in the MPA’s site-blocking drive, hand-picked for displaying every quality the studios have been warning about, doesn’t the timing seem at least a little premature?
That brings us to the second point on the triad. According to most public statements, including testimony before Congress in 2023, for geographical and political reasons, the MPA had not yet acquired the means to shut Fmovies down. The main complication was understood to be the site’s operator(s) being located in Vietnam. Last year, the MPA’s Senior Executive Vice President, Karyn Temple, visited Vietnam and personally asked law enforcement to intervene.
While that didn’t happen, it’s not difficult to see how that strengthened the MPA’s case for site-blocking; a tool of last resort, for tackling the most egregious foreign sites, that respond to no other measures, while stealing from Americans and laundering the money. Yet despite all that, somehow Fmovies is already dead, no site-blocking needed.
Did Opportunity Knock?
In the wake of RARBG’s unexpected shutdown, we published a report highlighting a series of political events that, when combined, offered a plausible explanation of factors that likely contributed to the site’s demise. A link to our report appeared in an MPA document; it wasn’t an endorsement but seemed to imply that we were at least on the right track.
The Fmovies situation is more complex, more political, and much less predictable; all good reasons to continue regardless.
With a focus on enforcing copyright in the digital age, the International Symposium on Copyright Enforcement took place in Hanoi over four days starting June 17. Those present included the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the World Trade Organization (WTO), and Vietnam’s Copyright Office under the Ministry of Culture.
Also in attendance, the Motion Picture Association (MPA), featuring the major movie studios and Netflix. The MPA was joined by the Audiovisual Anti-Piracy Alliance (AAPA), a venture featuring a who’s-who of major rightsholders and specialist anti-piracy companies.
The image on the right features MPA Chairman/CEO Charles H. Rivkin (left) alongside Nguyen Quoc Dzung, Vietnam’s Ambassador to the United States.
“Vietnam’s dynamic streaming market is an increasingly important one for MPA members,” Rivkin said.
“Had a great lunch with @AmbassadorDzung discussing how to strengthen the bonds between our creative economies and protect the livelihoods of the creative workforce driving this shared growth.”
The copyright enforcement symposium ended on June 21 and purely for reference purposes, Fmovies reportedly stopped updating June 22/23.
The post featuring the image above is dated June 24, three days after the symposium ended. The timing could be purely coincidental.
Things get a little more tricky when trying to imagine a discussion on how to protect livelihoods to drive shared growth, without mentioning the Fmovies-sized elephant sat at the table, helping itself to food from everyone’s plates.
If Fmovies wasn’t mentioned as a problem in need of a solution, perhaps the site’s sudden maintenance problems were mentioned in passing? We don’t know but on the balance of probabilities, something must’ve been mentioned.
Developing Vietnam’s Movie Business
On July 5, at the Da Nang Asian Film Festival held in the central city of Da Nang, the Vietnam Film Development Association (VFDA) held a seminar aiming to enhance international co-production and development of the local film industry.
VFDA President Ngo Phuong Lan spoke of the importance of film to the local economy, noting that Vietnam needs to gain experience from countries with a well-developed film industry. Who could possibly help?
Jared Dougherty is Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Vice Chairman and Head of Asia Pacific for Public Policy and Foreign Affairs. According to VietnamPlus, “Dougherty shared several solutions that are applicable in Vietnam, ranging from getting funding for films to capitalizing on the values of films’ intellectual property.”
Since Sony is a member of the MPA, Dougherty has seen the elephant pilfering from his plate too. Maybe its demise wasn’t mentioned as a quid pro quo in respect of the films in need of funding. Maybe that’s already understood.
Other information seems to suggest an entirely different set of problems at Fmovies.
Fmovies May Have Been Compromised
If we combine the qualities mentioned earlier, most people would likely agree that Fmovies’ security wasn’t seen as especially problematic. That being said, the MPA seem confident in their claim to have identified the site’s owner, and we see no reason to dispute that. The MPA has also shared additional pieces of information; nothing especially groundbreaking but enough to wonder exactly how much more they know.
The answer to that question is probably “much more” but having reviewed information pertaining to Fmovies just this week, the potential for others knowing a lot too seems wide open. We will take a lot more time to verify the finer details, but we suspect that sensitive details relating to Fmovies infrastructure shouldn’t have appeared online.
The MPA stated publicly that the site was hosted in Bulgaria and that appears to be true, at least from the list of IP addresses out in the open. Presumably the same applies to around two dozen IP addresses that, at least far as we can determine, acted as Fmovies proxy servers, at least in part.
Also exposed are the domains of several third party file-hosting platforms which provided Fmovies’ content libraries, and what seems to be the means to obtain that content without Fmovies’ involvement.
All of that being said, perhaps the biggest eye-opener is a list of domain names that allegedly form the Fmovies ’empire’. It’s no secret that Fmovies has connections to other, broadly similar streaming sites. Certainly, the MPA has mentioned it several times and based on common knowledge, a few have been mentioned here too.
Until we’ve tested every single one, we won’t report any here. Suffice to say, taking out Fmovies permanently could have a dramatic effect on many other sites operating under very familiar branding.
Anything being discussed in Vietnam, to the extent that Fmovies was under discussion, by default isn’t just about Fmovies. The big question is whether Fmovies’ death and the resulting gap in the market, will be seen as a warning to others or simply a golden opportunity.
