Are pirate streaming sites in the middle of a copyright crackdown?
Increasing numbers of piracy websites are going offline – with some worried that a crackdown is occurring.
Image by Cybernews.
Increasing numbers of piracy websites are going offline – leaving many concerned that a crackdown is occurring.
Internet piracy is an ever-increasing issue for copyright holders, including book publishers, movie producers, TV stations, and sports rightsholders. Last year, nearly 230 billion visits were made to piracy websites, according to MUSO, a consultancy that tracks the spread of piracy. That’s up 6.7% from the previous year.
But there are early indications that the wider industry is fighting back against the scourge of copyright infringement, as a number of large piracy websites have gone offline in recent weeks, with eerily similar notifications to their users. Among the websites that have gone offline, leaving either no trace or a departure announcement encouraging their users to purchase movies legitimately, is Fmovies, one of the first to disappear.
But since then, a range of other websites have blinked out of existence, including theflixtor.to, mov2day.to, and 2flix.to, and others. Where once they showed a colourful collage of Netflix-like interfaces from which users could find almost anything they wanted to watch, now there are stark black and white web pages. Many of those that disappeared took off their vast back catalogue of movies and TV shows, and instead showed a simple message to the users that came to them.
A recalcitrant regret
“We’ve been providing links to movies and shows for a long time. Now it’s time to say goodbye,” wrote the message on Fboxz.to, one of the latest websites to go offline in recent weeks. “Thank you for being our friends and thanks for staying with us that long.”
The message continued: “PS: Please pay for the movies/shows. That’s what we should do to show our respect to the people behind the movies/shows.”
As first identified by TorrentFreak, the language of that messaging is exactly the same as that shown by 123Movies when it shut down six years ago following a massive investigation by law enforcement that crossed international borders. What’s particularly interesting is the similarity of the language, as well as the messaging, and the encouragement to use legal means – which some suggest could be an attempt by the site owners to get leniency if they are ever caught in an active investigation by law enforcement.
Signs of an industry-wide crackdown?
Ever since the web was first invented, there has been a thriving piracy scene. But the long history of the cat-and-mouse game between those who try to dodge copyright and those who seek to enforce it means that the owners of platforms that subvert society's rules often get caught. It seems like, with the raft of issues facing piracy websites in recent weeks, the same is happening here.
Every day that passes seems to see another website taken offline. Vidsrc2.to went offline, as did Aniwave.to, AnimeSurge.to and Anix.to and others. For a time in early September, it also seemed like law enforcement had nabbed a particularly big scalp, as TorrentGalaxy went offline for a short period of time, but quickly returned back online as if nothing had happened.
But the signal more generally is clear to those who tend to use torrenting and piracy websites: what was once a guaranteed always-on service is something much shakier now.
Whether taken down by their own volition, a sudden recognition that what they’re doing is wrong, or a more malicious and meaningful action required by law enforcement and the threat of prison time for breaching copyright law, it seems like the battle between those breaching copyright and those trying to uphold its values is getting bloodier.