August 24, 2021– The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the world’s leading coalition dedicated to protecting the dynamic legal marketplace and reducing digital piracy, congratulates the esteemed Vietnamese law enforcement agency PC03, for identifying and formally interviewing the founder and operators of the piracy website Phimmoi as part of the first step in the ongoing prosecution process.
Phimmoi is the most visited piracy streaming website in Vietnam. At its peak of popularity between June 2019 and June 2020, Phimmoi was the 22nd most popular website in Vietnam and averaged over 69 million visitors per month. The website has been listed on the United States Government USTR ‘Notorious Markets List’ for the past two years and according to some estimates, Phimmoi can earn as much as $170,000 per month in advertising revenue alone. The losses to the Vietnamese and international content industry caused by Phimmoi illegally making their movies and TV shows are in the tens of millions of dollars.
“In today’s digital world, entertainment is at our fingertips, from movies and TV shows to video games and live sports events. However with the global availability of such premium entertainment we are also seeing a rise in digital piracy, which is not only hurting the Vietnamese and international content industry but also puts Vietnamese consumers at risk,” said Jan van Voorn, Executive Vice President and Chief of Global Content Protection for the Motion Picture Association. “Legal services provide premium entertainment content which is reliable and most importantly, legal. The piracy alternatives, like Phimmoi, fund crime groups, are unreliable and put consumers at risk of malware infection.”
Vietnam has one of the highest levels of digital piracy in the Asia Pacific region. A March 2021 survey undertaken by the UK-based consumer research group YouGov, found that 60% of Vietnamese consumers currently access piracy streaming or torrent websites and 21% of consumers use an illicit streaming device (ISD) to access TV shows/video or for premium content1. Vietnam is also the only South East Asian country surveyed by YouGov which has shown an increase in streaming piracy in the last 24 months.
Effective intellectual property protection benefits both the Vietnamese and international content industry and drives innovation, investment and economic growth. The Phimmoi case, upon its successful prosecution, will be viewed as a successful outcome in protecting Vietnamese consumers against malicious content as well as an opportunity to prove to the international and local rights holder community that the criminal legal framework in Vietnam can be effectively applied. It is also serves as an example of coordination and collaboration between international and Vietnamese rights holders.
The theft of digital content is the single greatest threat to the global audiovisual community. It harms both local and foreign films and businesses, threatens jobs, puts consumers at risk, undermines investment, reduces tax contributions to governments, and stifles creativity.
1: YouGov Survey Finds Vietnam Among Highest in Online Piracy in Southeast Asia
About The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE)
The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) is the world’s leading coalition dedicated to protecting the dynamic legal market and reducing digital piracy. Driven by a comprehensive approach to addressing piracy through criminal referrals, civil litigation and cease-and-desist operations, ACE has achieved many successful global enforcement actions against illegal streaming services and sources of unauthorized content and their operators. Drawing upon the collective expertise and resources of all members and reinforced by the content protection operations of the Motion Picture Association, ACE protects the creativity and innovation that drive the global growth of core copyright and entertainment industries. The current governing board members for ACE are: Amazon, Apple TV+, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Sony Pictures Entertainment, ViacomCBS, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, and Warner Bros. Charles Rivkin is Chairman of ACE and the Motion Picture Association.
Press Contact:
Kristen Tarnol
kristen_tarnol@motionpictures.org
