123movies was shut down as part of a criminal investigation

Criminal investigation leads to the shutdown of 123movies

In March this year, 123movies(hub), also known as GoMovies, had announced that it would be shutting down its website.

123movies had made the shutdown announcement on its website, which read, “We’ve been providing links to movies and shows for years. Now it’s time to say goodbye. Thank you for being our friends and thanks for staying with us that long.

“PS: Please pay for the movies/shows, that’s what we should do to show our respect to people behind the movies/shows.”

The shutdown announcement by 123movies had come after an investigation done by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) discovered a new threat based in Vietnam that made it officially call 123movies, as the world’s most popular illegal movie site.

Back then, no official explanation was provided by the operators of 123movies for the planned closure decision. However, MPAA has now come forward with some clarity. This week, MPAA had sent its latest list of “notorious markets” to the US Government, where the group has linked it to a criminal investigation.

“An important development in 2018 was the shuttering of a ring of piracy services that had operated under the names 123movies, 123movieshub, gostream, and gomovies following the launch of a criminal investigation in Vietnam and significant industry engagement,” MPAA writes.

TorrentFreak contacted MPAA enquiring if the investigation resulted in any arrests, charges, or if it’s still ongoing, to which MPAA has still not responded.

Nevertheless, it is clear that 123movies did close down under increasing movie industry pressure

It’s clear though, that the mounting pressure resulted in 123movies being shut down. This is arguably one of the major anti-piracy successes of the year so far, but the problem isn’t over yet.

Following the shutdown of 123movies, several clones and copies came up to take its place. However, the MPAA says that it has these on its locating system as well.

“Since its closure, many copycat sites have emerged. This ring of piracy services had been blocked in at least eight countries prior to its shut down and efforts are underway to shut down the copycats as well,” the MPAA notes.

Last month, the biggest clone 123movieshub.sc had suddenly gone offline, as the site’s domain was deactivated by the domain name registry.

Also Read- 123movies.is is dead | Top 3 Movie streaming website

Source: TorrentFreak

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