An anti-piracy coalition has dismantled one of India’s most popular streaming piracy services, which has provided free access to movies and TV shows to millions over the past two years.
Backed by over 50 major television networks and film studios, including Disney, Warner Bros, Netflix, Paramount, Sony Pictures, and Universal Pictures, the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) focuses on shutting down illegal streaming services through criminal referrals, civil litigation, and cease-and-desist operations.
ACE’s latest action resulted in the shutdown of the MKVCinemas piracy network and 25 related domains, which attracted over 142.4 million visitors between 2024 and 2025.
ACE identified the operator of the piracy platform in Bihar, India, who agreed to cease operations and transfer control of all associated domains. All MKVCinemas sites now redirect visitors to ACE’s “Watch Legally” portal.
As part of the same action, it also shut down a widely used file-cloning tool that allowed users across India and Indonesia to distribute copyrighted content by copying files directly from hidden cloud repositories into their personal cloud storage.
This tool drew 231.4 million visits over the past two years and helped evade takedown efforts by concealing the source of media files uploaded to the cloud drives.
“Our actions make clear that ACE will relentlessly pursue and dismantle illegal operations so audiences and creators can benefit from a secure, sustainable marketplace,” said Larissa Knapp, Executive Vice President at the Motion Picture Association (MPA).
Last month, ACE and DAZN also took down Photocall, a major TV digital piracy service that provided unauthorized access to 1,127 TV channels to over 26 million users annually, including live sports content.
A separate joint law enforcement operation coordinated by Europol disrupted more piracy streaming services in November after identifying 69 sites with over 11.8 million annual visitors.
The authorities also initiated 44 new investigations after connecting $55 million (over €47 million) in cryptocurrency to illegal streaming services and referring 25 illegal IPTV services to cryptocurrency providers for disruption.
In recent years, ACE has targeted a string of large-scale illegal streaming networks in joint operations with law enforcement organizations, including Europol, Interpol, and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Since the start of 2025, its efforts have also led to the shutdown of Streameast, one of the world’s largest illegal live sports streaming networks, and Rare Breed TV, an IPTV piracy platform with over 28,000 channels and more than 100,000 movies and series.
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