Brian Jeffrey
On November 9, Hanoi Police announced that they have pressed charges against Phan Thanh Cong and Nguyen Tuan Anh, both born in 1990 and residing in Ha Dong District, for breaching copyright laws.
Previously, the Economic Police Division was alerted to the website Fmovies, which reportedly received over 6.7 billion visits in the first half of 2024. The site was accused of infringing on film copyrights protected by the Motion Picture Association (MPA). Following this, an investigation commenced.
Working closely with U.S. law enforcement and other relevant bodies, the police uncovered that the Fmovies network was hosting nearly 50,000 films suspected of copyright violations, many of which were MPA-protected. Fmovies was found to be operating on a substantial scale, streaming MPA films illegally to audiences worldwide.
To gather evidence against the suspects and understand the various roles involved, authorities took decisive steps to collect information.
During the investigation, police identified Phan Thanh Cong as the main perpetrator, overseeing the creation and management of the Fmovies website. Cong had a history of administrative penalties for similar offenses. Nguyen Tuan Anh was identified as a collaborator, involved in the illegal copying and uploading of MPA films onto Fmovies and its associated sites.
Between 2016 and August 2024, the suspects’ illegal operations reportedly earned them hundreds of thousands of dollars.
During the investigation, both suspects confessed to their crimes.
