Free movie streaming site used by millions finally shut down in overdue piracy crackdown

A piracy portal that provided free unlawful entry to 1000’s of films in addition to common TV boxsets has lastly been shuttered. Afdah.com was first launched again in 2013, and caught the eye of rights holders because it swiftly constructed up a library of over 18,000 exhibits and movies without cost that may often value to lease or purchase from official companies, like Prime Video and Disney+. The web site, which was beforehand ranked within the prime 250 hottest piracy web sites on this planet, was utilized by hundreds of thousands of individuals every month regardless of one of the best efforts of legislation enforcement.

The brutal battle to convey down Afdah started seven years in the past, with rights holders launching authorized motion quite a few occasions to stifle its operations and get the location blocked in areas around the globe.

And after years of effort, the largest blow to Afdah’s operations has simply emerged, with TorrentFreak reporting Afdah’s domains have been seized by the Movement Image Affiliation (MPA).

The MPA is a collective physique of Hollywood’s largest names, together with Netflix and Disney, who for years have been concerned in getting tons of of piracy web sites blocked.

Earlier this month, Afdah domains had been listed on-line as belonging to the MPA. And if you happen to go to Afdah websites now you may be greeted with a message from the Alliance for Creativity and Leisure (ACE) – who the MPA are affiliated with – saying the area is not accessible.

The message says: “This web site is not accessible. As a result of copyright infringement. Don’t put your self in danger through the use of or subscribing to unlawful streaming companies. You can be redirected to alliance4creativity.com”.

Afdah provided unlawful free entry to a wealth of content material, akin to unique Netflix content material together with hit motion film Extraction and common crime sequence Cash Heist. Reveals and blockbusters unique to streaming app Disney+, like hits akin to Hawkeye, Shang-Chi and Hamilton had been additionally accessible to entry illegally on Afdah’s web site.

The hammerblow to the piracy portal’s operations comes after rights holders have been attempting for years to stifle its illicit companies.

Again in 2015 the Movement Image Affiliation (MPA), who’ve lengthy led the cost towards piracy web sites, obtained an injunction from the Excessive Court docket to get the location blocked within the UK.

Within the aftermath of this block extra Afdah domains had been launched – Afdah.television and Afdah.to – which as soon as once more had been blocked in 2018 after authorized motion in Singapore.

This dynamic injunction was used to dam any future Afdah domains in Singapore, however rights holders weren’t performed. In 2019, one other injunction was filed in Australia to dam Afdah and dozens of different pirate websites.

However the largest blow has simply been landed.

Afdah’s domains have been seized by the MPA following a subpoena within the US that compelled Cloudflare to handover info on the person behind the Afdah area.

The battle to convey down Afdah took greater than seven years, exhibiting age is not any impediment in terms of what piracy portals rights holders wish to put in its crosshairs.

The Afdah takedown comes as one other long-running piracy web site – PrimeWire – can also be dealing with authorized motion from the MPA, with rights holders gaining a preliminary injunction towards PrimeWire earlier this 12 months.

However PrimeWire is preventing towards having its area seized, going as far as to final month take away all hyperlinks to pirated supplies that had been beforehand listed.