No one on the distribution or content side of the industry wants piracy. It’s a bad look, and it hurts the entire value chain that depends on consumers paying for what they watch (or at least watching ads). That’s why this week’s announcement by the Motion Picture Association’s enforcement group, the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, was so monumental in the fight against global piracy. Working with authorities in Vietnam, ACE managed to take down Fmovies, launched in 2016 and known as the largest movie piracy network in the world, hosting hundreds of illicit download sites that amassed nearly 7 billion visits over the last 18 months. It’s a huge win for the industry, which has struggled as a whole to find consistent profitability in streaming as it tries to figure out post-COVID windowing around theatrical movies that are often available online the minute they hit theaters. That diminishes the value of streaming windows, especially overseas where many studios see growth bolstering the more saturated U.S. market. Considering that an estimated one-third of Fmovies’ traffic came from the U.S., the takedown may also help streamers sign up new domestic users who had previously pirated much of their content, especially now that cheaper ad-supported free and paid options exist in abundance
Studios remain in deep competition with both traditional rivals and pure-play streamers, but fighting piracy seems to be one thing that brings everyone together. ACE’s members include both Silicon Valley companies like Amazon, Apple, and Netflix, as well as Disney, Paramount Global, and Warner Bros. Discovery. That makes perfect sense as piracy affects everyone’s bottom line in some way, shape, or form. It also affects distributors that may not be official ACE members but certainly benefit from its efforts to preserve the ecosystem and increase the value of legitimate ways to access content. (Comcast is a part of ACE largely through its NBCUniversal interests.) Although distributors generally support anti-piracy efforts, it’s also a dicey issue for broadband providers because of some legislative and regulatory efforts around the world to hold ISPs responsible for users who partake in video piracy. For example, Cox only two weeks ago filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court asking for a review of a case brought against Cox by Sony Corp. and other music industry groups back in 2018 to hold ISPs accountable for the piracy actions of its users. In February 2024, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Cox was liable for contributory infringement, a concept Cox said “could jeopardize Internet access for all Americans” in a press release announcing its SCOTUS petition. If the Supremes take the case, it’s likely that any outcome would cover all forms of content piracy rather than only music and therefore affect the entire media industry.
Next? The Cox-Sony case highlights the importance of fighting piracy at the source, especially if broadband providers end up even partially responsible for user actions on their networks. But trying to police users at their access points could be a privacy nightmare as Cox so eloquently noted this month in its release when it argued that such forced measures “could result in a fundamental change to how ISPs must manage their networks, as many may feel that the only way to avoid liability is to monitor the activity of their subscribers to ensure no one is engaging in potentially unlawful conduct. This is not how the Internet should work.” No it’s not. And furthermore, global authorities will frankly never be able to shut down every piracy site everywhere and guarantee full copyright compliance of its users. There will always be leaks and piracy incidents. The MPA trumpeted this week’s shutdown of Fmovies as a victory that takes out many piracy sites in one fell swoop, departing from the “Whac-a-Mole” actions of the past. But let’s all be honest. New piracy sites have probably already popped up to fill demand, and that will always happen. This is a perpetual Whac-a-Mole no matter what. But with studios and other streamers providing more options than ever – including innovative bundles providing more convenience and cheaper prices – consumers have never had more affordable ways to access content. That’s a plus, even if the piracy battle likely will never end. (Speaking of bundles, check out our new StreamTRAK® DEEPDive on the evolution of bundles HERE.)
