Those of you still absolutely fiending on precious content acquired online through various means are gonna have to find some other avenue to stream a flick or two soon, as one of the world’s largest piracy sites just announced it’ll be closing up shop for good very soon.
123Movies, otherwise known as GoMovies, has placed a banner on their website announcing the end of their service, with a countdown clock ticking away until midnight Saturday night/Sunday morning AEDT.
The banner thanks users for sticking with them and urges people to pay for movies and shows moving forward.
The timing of the shutdown is something of a curious coincidence, given the American industry juggernaut MPAA labelled the outfit “the most popular illegal site in the world” no more than a few days ago.
The MPAA has been sending representatives to Vietnam, where 123Movies operates out of, to seek assistance from the Vietnamese Office of Police Investigation Agency in a bid to try and combat piracy on a global scale.
The MPAA’s claim that the 123Movies is the “largest” illegal site in the world is a little off-base, however. Citing a report in January, the Motion Picture Association of America claimed that with 98 million visitors per month, 123Movies was a global leader in online piracy. That same report also states that ye olde Pirate Bay gets an estimated 282 million visitors per month, clearly far outstripping 123Movies. But it remains a significant source of less than legal movies nonetheless.
Either way, data also shows that torrenting and illegal streaming has taken a significant nosedive in Australia in recent times, down some 25% in the last year alone. Figures attribute this dive to Federal Courts ordering certain torrenting sites to be blocked by Australian ISPs. Though it makes no mention of a correlation between a reduce in numbers and the fact that consumers have actual access to legal resources like Netflix, Stan, and Foxtel Now.
For what it’s worth, 123Movie’s usually dormant social media accounts have been pointing aggrieved punters towards a “backup” site. If you want it bad enough, it’s not exactly difficult to find.
Not that we’re advocating for that or anything, mind you.
