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Type of site | Streaming media |
---|---|
Available in | All |
Area served | Worldwide (blocked in Australia, Denmark, United Arab Emirates [ citation needed ], Sweden, and the United Kingdom) |
Advertising | Yes; pop-up advertising |
Commercial | Yes |
Registration | Optional |
Launched | 2016 |
Current status | Offline |
Written in | HTML, JavaScript and PHP |
FMovies is a series of file streaming websites that host links and embedded videos, allowing users to stream or download movies for free. The sites have been subject to legal action in various jurisdictions on grounds of copyright infringement and piracy. [1] [2] [3] [4]
The site was created in 2016, [3] [5] and blocked from Google searches in December 2016.
In November 2017, FMovies lost a lawsuit brought by Filipino media and entertainment group ABS-CBN, and was ordered to pay $210,000. [6] [3] [4] [7] [8]
In January 2018, the site was identified as a "notorious market" by the U.S. government, along with The Pirate Bay and other piracy sites. [9] In October 2018, Telia Company, a Swedish ISP, was ordered to block FMovies. [1] They appealed the order. [10] That same month, the Motion Picture Association reported FMovies along with other piracy sites to the U.S. government. [11] FMovies was blocked in Australia in December 2018, after a request in August. [12] [13] [14]
In February 2019, Sweden asked advertisers to blacklist some piracy and streaming sites, which included FMovies. [15] In April 2019, ISPs in India were ordered to block FMovies and other piracy sites. [16]
In October 2023, Vietnam's Ministry of Information and Communications (Vietnam) declares a joint operation with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Vietnam) and Ministry of Public Security (Vietnam) divisions, with direct focus on FMovies in an effort to combat piracy. [17]
In December 2023, scrutiny heightened as the United States House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property holds a livestreamed hearing with the Motion Picture Association, where calls for more action to be done against FMovies are requested in particular, with Karyn Temple calling for ISPs within the United States to block access to the website entirely, also citing other concerns regarding how the website may garner revenue. [18] [19] [20]
The Bescherming Rechten Entertainment Industrie Nederland is an advocacy group with international links, based in the Netherlands, which represents the interests of the Dutch entertainment industry and is organised under the Dutch law through the legal form of stichting. It is notable for launching court proceedings against copyright infringement in the country and for engaging in lobbying in order to create legal precedents of global significance.
The Pirate Bay is an online index of digital content of entertainment media and software. Founded in 2003 by Swedish think tank Piratbyrån, The Pirate Bay allows visitors to search, download, and contribute magnet links and torrent files, which facilitate peer-to-peer file sharing among users of the BitTorrent protocol.
The use of the BitTorrent protocol for the unauthorized sharing of copyrighted content generated a variety of novel legal issues. While the technology and related platforms are legal in many jurisdictions, law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies are attempting to address this avenue of copyright infringement. Notably, the use of BitTorrent in connection with copyrighted material may make the issuers of the BitTorrent file, link or metadata liable as an infringing party under some copyright laws. Similarly, the use of BitTorrent to procure illegal materials could potentially create liability for end users as an accomplice.
TorrentFreak (TF) is a blog dedicated to reporting the latest news and trends on the BitTorrent protocol and file sharing, as well as on copyright infringement and digital rights.
File sharing in the United Kingdom relates to the distribution of digital media in that country. In 2010, there were over 18.3 million households connected to the Internet in the United Kingdom, with 63% of these having a broadband connection. There are also many public Internet access points such as public libraries and Internet cafes.
Movie4k.to, formerly Movie2k.to, is a user-contributed video directory for television programs and films. It is an aggregation-website acting as a search index for online videos. In May 2013, Movie2k.to was shut down by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) due to copyright infringement concerns, but shortly after reopened as Movie4k.to. It primarily serves English and German-speaking areas. However, the site is also no longer accessible in the UK, Denmark, and customers of some ISPs in Austria due to ISPs blocking the site.
KickassTorrents was a website that provided a directory for torrent files and magnet links to facilitate peer-to-peer file sharing using the BitTorrent protocol. It was founded in 2008 and by November 2014, KAT became the most visited BitTorrent directory in the world, overtaking The Pirate Bay, according to the site's Alexa ranking. KAT went offline on 20 July 2016 when the domain was seized by the U.S. government. The site's proxy servers were shut down by its staff at the same time.
This is a list on countries where at least one internet service provider (ISP) formerly or currently censors the popular file sharing website The Pirate Bay (TPB).
Popcorn Time is a multi-platform, free software BitTorrent client that includes an integrated media player. The application provides a piracy-based alternative to subscription-based video streaming services such as Netflix. Popcorn Time uses sequential downloading to stream video listed by several torrent websites, and third-party trackers can also be added manually. The legality of the software depends on the jurisdiction.
Nyaa Torrents is a BitTorrent website focused on East Asian media. It is one of the largest public anime-dedicated torrent indexes.
RARBG was a website that provided torrent files and magnet links to facilitate peer-to-peer file sharing using the BitTorrent protocol. From 2014 to 2023, RARBG repeatedly appeared in TorrentFreak's yearly list of most visited torrent websites. It was ranked 4th as of January 2023. The website did not allow users to upload their own torrents.
Library Genesis (LibGen) is a shadow library project for file-sharing access to scholarly journal articles, academic and general-interest books, images, comics, audiobooks, and magazines. The site enables free access to content that is otherwise paywalled or not digitized elsewhere. LibGen describes itself as a "links aggregator", providing a searchable database of items "collected from publicly available public Internet resources" as well as files uploaded "from users".
Putlocker is a file hosting index website used for streaming entertainment media, particularly films and television series, for free. The initial website originated in the United Kingdom in 2011, and grew to receive millions of daily visitors after the shutdown of Megaupload. In May 2016, the website was blocked in the UK by a High Court order, and at its peak prior to a temporary closure in late 2016, Alexa Internet listed Putlocker as ranking among the top 250 most-visited websites worldwide. Putlocker has been reported by the Motion Picture Association (MPA) as a major piracy threat.
TamilRockers is a torrent website based in India which facilitates the distribution of copyrighted material, including television shows, movies, music and videos. The site allows visitors to search for and download copyrighted material with the help of magnet links and torrent files, which facilitate peer-to-peer file sharing. It also operates multiple Telegram channels and groups with thousands of subscribers. TamilRockers is the tenth most popular torrent site in TorrentFreak's Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2020 list.
YIFY Torrents or YTS was a peer-to-peer release group known for distributing large numbers of movies as free downloads through BitTorrent. YIFY releases were characterised through their small file size, which attracted many downloaders.
123Movies, GoMovies, GoStream, MeMovies or 123movieshub was a network of file streaming websites operating from Vietnam which allowed users to watch films for free. It was called the world's "most popular illegal site" by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) in March 2018, before being shut down a few weeks later on foot of a criminal investigation by the Vietnamese authorities. As of February 2024, websites imitating the brand remain active.
KissAnime was an anime-focused file streaming website that hosted links and embedded videos, allowing users to stream or download movies and TV shows illegally for free. It was a sister site to a related manga viewing website, KissManga. KissAnime was described as "one of the world’s biggest streaming anime websites". TorrentFreak reported that the sites had audiences of millions and that for a time, KissAnime was "the most visited pirate site in the world".
Z-Library is a shadow library project for file-sharing access to scholarly journal articles, academic texts and general-interest books. It began as a mirror of Library Genesis, but has expanded dramatically.