LOS ANGELES – The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the world’s largest and most effective anti-piracy coalition, today announced it has shut down the Hanoi-based piracy operation USTVGO.
The infringing live-streaming site had been in operation since 2018 and was providing illicit access to more than 100 live channels, including sports channels, the majority of which belonged to ACE members. Prior to the shutdown of USTVGO and its associated domains, it was averaging more than 16 million visits per month, with 75% of the traffic originating in the United States.
Courts and other relevant authorities in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore had previously found USTVGO domains were infringing and ordered ISPs to block them. Nonetheless, the sites had continued operating out of Vietnam until ACE’s direct enforcement action.
“Our latest action is further proof that ACE is successfully fighting piracy operators in Vietnam and across the Asia-Pacific region,” said Jan van Voorn, Executive Vice President and Global Content Protection Chief for the Motion Picture Association and Head of ACE. “Vietnamese piracy operators have been associated with some of the world’s most egregious piracy services, which cause significant damage to the local and international marketplaces and make Vietnam a piracy hotspot. We have identified several piracy operators in Vietnam besides USTVGO and are making use of all available tools to shut them down.”
About The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment
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 more than 50 media and entertainment companies around the world 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 Studios LLC, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Paramount, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, and Warner Bros. Charles Rivkin is Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association and Chairman of ACE. For more information, please visit www.alliance4creativity.com.
Media Contact
Pamela Corante
pamela_corante@motionpictures.org
