The pressure from MPA, RIAA, and other entertainment industry groups in Vietnam, where popular pirate sites like Fmovies, AniWave, 123movies, and 2embed were hosted, seems to have resulted in many sites suddenly announcing their termination at the same time.
Vietnam has long been seen as a safe haven for hosting piracy sites, which even led representatives from the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) to travel to the Asian country to discuss the issue with local authorities.
The first major site to shut down was Fmovies, which has now led to the closure of many other sites that published a very similar farewell message, likely as a consequence of the legal pressure they faced. It seems likely that some form of coercive action is behind these recent events, but as of the time this article was written, there is no official confirmation.
This type of legal pressure to identify the owners of piracy sites is becoming increasingly common, and just recently, we reported that Webtoon wants to identify the owners of 170 pirate site domains.
Webtoon targets over 170 pirate domains through DMCA subpoena
Other sites linked to Fmovies have now also come to an end, including the anime piracy site Aniwave (formerly 9anime), which had an impressive 170 million monthly visits.
In the message posted on Aniwave, we can read:
Hello, You know, it has been a long journey since Aniwave (9Anime) first appeared. Creating better products that provide a better user experience and fostering competition to drive the market to improve products is something that makes us very happy. Now that everything has improved… it is also time for us to say goodbye… It is difficult to part with something we have invested so much effort and passion into, but it is something we need to do. Thank you for being with us and supporting us all this time!
Every game must come to an end… and life is about experiences. Each mistake teaches us lessons that help us grow.
If possible, use paid legal services. It is something we should do to show our respect for content creators and producers.
Goodbye!
The same message was also posted on the sites AnimeSurge and Anix.