ACE Shuts Down Filma24, Albania’s Movie Piracy Juggernaut
For many thousands of Albanians, Filma24 was the top destination for pirated movies and TV shows. This weekend, however, that routine came to an abrupt halt when the site and many of its backup domains went offline. All signs point to an intervention from anti-piracy group ACE and parent organization the Motion Picture Association (MPA), which is the new owner of Filma24's domain names. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
Online piracy is a global problem for copyright holders, but some threats are relatively localized.
In addition to internationally oriented sites such as The Pirate Bay, Hianime, Cineby and many others, there are also many local favorites.
Filma24
Five years ago, Filma24 was Albania’s leading pirate site, with over half of its visitors hailing from the Southeastern European country, making it one of the nation’s most popular websites.
The site’s popularity attracted the attention of the MPA’s Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), which attempted to identify the operators through a DMCA subpoena obtained at a U.S. court.
The MPA also mentioned the pirate site in its most recent notorious markets submission to the U.S. Trade Representative. While it wasn’t mentioned as a core threat, it was noted that the IO domain registry had kept Filma24’s .io domain online, despite rightsholders’ complaints.
The original site has changed domains numerous times so may not have remained under the same ownership. The Filma24 brand certainly didn’t disappear. Filma24.bike, for example, had over two million visits in March this year, half of which came from Albania.
While these numbers may not sound like much for larger pirate sites, it’s a local juggernaut. Albania only has a population of just over three million, and Filma24.bike alone was listed as the 59th most visited domain in the country. And with dozens of alternative domain names in standby mode, it was prepared for trouble.
MPA/ACE Take over Filma24 Domains
Trouble eventually arrived last weekend. Official confirmation is lacking, but over the past few days Filma24.bike began redirecting to ACE’s takedown banner. The same applies to many other Filma24 domains including filma24.app, filma24.dev, filma24-al.com, filma24.lol, filma24.name, filma24.pro, filma24.top, filma24.uno and filma24.vip.
In addition, the Zhblloko.com domain was also taken over by the Hollywood group. This website was promoted through the Filma24 website for years and informed people how they could bypass site-blocking efforts, by changing DNS servers for example, or through a VPN service.
Upon closer inspection, we can see that the domain names in question were signed over to the Motion Picture Association, which put the redirect in place. Since all domains were signed over nearly simultaneously, the operators may have been uncovered and handed over the domains as part of some type of agreement.
TorrentFreak reached out to the MPA and ACE, requesting a comment on the matter, but we have yet to hear back. That said, ACE regularly takes over domain names in a similar fashion and there appears to be no court order linked to this action.
Needless to say, the shutdown comes as a disappointment to many Albanian pirates who preferred Filma24 above other sites due to the availability of local subtitles. According to an unconfirmed Reddit thread, the site was asking for donations just days before it disappeared.
Whether this will truly be the end of the Filma24 brand is highly unlikely. There are already new sites using the same name and branding, which will likely be embraced by many as if nothing ever happened. Rinse and repeat.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
