World's 'most popular illegal site' says goodbye, encourages paying for movies, shows

Pirate streaming site GoMovies has posted a message on its site to announce that it is time to say goodbye. In the announcement, the site urges its users to pay for movies and TV shows as a way to pay respect to creators.

GoMovies has been providing links to TV shows and movies for years. It is expected to close doors for good at the end of the week.

The site, more popularly known as 123movies or 123movieshub, is urging users to respect filmmakers by paying for their work. The streaming site’s popularity is evident, with millions of visitors per day, and has been known as one of the largest pirate streaming sites on the internet. In the message, the GoMovies team has thanked loyal users for their support.

The announcement came as the website is being labelled the most well-known illegal site in the world after an investigation conducted by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). The MPAA has learned that the site is run from outside the United States, as confirmed by Jan van Voorn, MPAA executive vice president and chief of global content protection.

Speaking to VN Express, van Voorn said that the website is being operated in Vietnam and has 98 million visitors per month. The MPAA was in Vietnam for a global campaign dealing with illegal piracy sites.

Jan van Voorn added that the Vietnamese must understand that movie-making is not free and that companies spend a lot for the sake of the craft. The US Ambassador to Vietnam has earlier requested the local government to criminally prosecute piracy sites running within the country, including 123movies. The number of legal movie and music sites in Vietnam has reportedly increased.

Meanwhile, in Australia, research has found a significant drop in illegal downloading among Aussie internet users. Illegal piracy and streaming were down around 25 percent in the last year.

The Federal Court has ordered 65 piracy sites to be blocked since the first orders were given in Australia in December 2016. New figures based on the Australian Site-Blocking Efficacy Report show that piracy has declined by 25 percent year-on-year. Usage of the top 50 piracy sites in Australia has also declined by 35 percent. The report was produced by online analysis company INCOPRO.