Phim mới (lit. 'New Film') is a Vietnamese website where users can watch movies online without copyright authorization.[1] It is the largest movie site in Vietnam;[1] however, most movies on this website are unauthorized.[2]
 The logo and a corner of phimmoi.net's webpage | |
Type of site | Pirate movie site |
|---|---|
| Available in | Vietnamese |
| Owner | Nguyễn Tuấn Tú |
| Created by | Cao Thanh Lai
Cao Duy Anh |
| Revenue | From advertisements |
| URL | phimmoi.net (already blocked)
|
| Registration | N/A |
| Launched | 2012 (domain registered) |
According to statistics from Alexa, before being blocked, Phimmoi.net was the website with the largest traffic in Vietnam. Statistics from another website traffic tool - SimilarWeb - shows that Phimmoi.net used to have 60-80 million visits per month.[2]
Content
editOn Phim mới's site, visitors are able to watch copyrighted movies without the requirement to pay any fee.[3]
phimmoi.net used to use Google's servers to host movies without copyright permission. The site owners spent money buying unlimited Google Drive accounts for students - with prices ranging from 150,000-300,000 VND for storage. However, this method only worked for a while until Google was forced to take measures to prevent it. In addition, the above-mentioned method also incurred high costs and did not guarantee server stability. Therefore, after that incident, the site owners switched to using Facebook's server instead.[4][5]
phimmoi.net's main revenue came from its huge viewership and online advertising contracts. According to an alleged price list of this website, a 5-second video ad run before a movie premieres could cost up to 18 million VND/ week. At the same time, a balloon ad with the size of 800×500 costed approximately 18 million VND/week. In addition, the surrounding advertising boxes also costed up to 25 million VND/week, and each ad view at the beginning of a movie would earn the site owner 20,000 VND.[6]
Blocked access in Vietnam
editOn June 17, 2020, many Vietnamese Internet service providers simultaneously blocked access to phimmoi.net.[7] At least 3 Vietnamese Internet service providers have blocked this website (VNPT, MobiFone, and FPT).[3][6] In 2017, phimmoi.net had all its ads withdrawn in a campaign against pirate websites launched by Vietnam's Ministry of Information and Communications.[8] However, after 1 day of being blocked, phimmoi.net was active again under a new domain name that was almost identical to the old one.[9] Even after having various other domains blocked, the site owners continued to create more domain names - by changing the ".net" extension to ".com", or adding a few letters "z" at the end. According to VnExpress, from mid-June to early July 2020, phimmoi.net bought dozens of different domain names to circumvent censorship.[10]
Public reaction
editThe blocking of phimmoi.net has resulted in opposing reactions within the community. Supporters of this website argue that many official movie sites do not have enough content, so it is OK to watch unauthorized movies; while others think that the cost for watching authorized movies is not too high. Some people even commented that phimmoi.net and other similar websites were "advertising platforms for online gambling services".[11]
An article in Mondaq stated that the prosecution of phimmoi.net was an important stepping stone for implementation of copyright laws in Vietnam, and would help "the Vietnamese public better understand the serious consequences of piracy".[12]
According to an article in the Asia Times, the Vietnamese government's action against piracy websites like phimmoi.net would be necessary if it wants to "appeal to more IP-sensitive foreign investors", especially considering the decline in FDI inflows into Vietnam following the new waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.[13]
Legal actions
editOn August 19, 2021, Ho Chi Minh City's police said that they were investigating acts of crime in the operation of phimmoi.net. According to the investigation's results, in 2014, Nguyễn Tuấn Tú (from Lâm Đồng) planned to build and develop a free online movie website to earn money from advertising. Tú hired Cao Thanh Lai and Cao Duy Anh, who were skilled in information technology, to design, administer and operate the phimmoi.net website.[14] According to article 225 of the Penal Code, Tú's acts may result in a fine of 3 billion VND - along with 3 years of non-custodial re-education.[13][15]
References
edit- ^ a b Lưu Quý (20 June 2020). "Website phim lậu lớn nhất Việt Nam bị chặn". VNExpress. Archived from the original on 2020-06-20. Retrieved 20 June 2020.
Phimmoi is the largest film website in Vietnam. The site's domain name has been registered since 2012 and remains valid until 2025. According to Similarweb's statistics, the site's total number of monthly visits was about 60 million in May 2020. There were many months in which its traffic reached more than 100 million - making it one of the 10 most visited websites in Vietnam.
- ^ a b "Nóng: Website xem phim bự lớn nhất Việt Nam chính thức bị chặn". SaoStar. 18 June 2020. Archived from the original on 21 June 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
- ^ a b "Web xem phim lậu nổi tiếng Việt bị chặn". Zing News. 19 June 2020. Archived from the original on 10 January 2021. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
- ^ "Ai "tiếp tay" cho kênh phim lậu thu bạc tỷ một cách dễ dàng?". Dân Trí. 2018-07-05. Archived from the original on 2020-06-20. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
- ^ "LÀM WEB PHIM LẬU KIẾM TIỀN TỶ, VỐN 0 ĐỒNG TẠI VN". VnReview. Archived from the original on 21 June 2020. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
- ^ a b "Website phim lậu lớn nhất Việt Nam bị "khai tử", thời xem chùa đã hết?". Báo Giao thông. 19 June 2020. Archived from the original on 20 June 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
- ^ "Web phim lậu lớn nhất nhì Việt Nam bỗng dừng hoạt động, năm tháng 'xem chùa' dần kết thúc?". Soha. 2020-06-19. Archived from the original on 2020-06-21. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
- ^ "Hàng loạt trang phim lậu sạch quảng cáo sau chiến dịch dẹp nạn vi phạm bản quyền". Viettimes. 2017-07-24. Archived from the original on 2017-10-02. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
- ^ "Phimmoi.net bị chặn một ngày đã hoạt động trở lại dưới tên mới". 19 June 2020. Archived from the original on 2020-06-21.
- ^ "Website phim lậu liên tục đổi tên". VnExpress. 2020-07-12. Archived from the original on 2020-07-11. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
- ^ Đức Thiện & Mi Ly (2020-06-20). "Xem phim lậu trên mạng: khó rồi". Tuổi Trẻ. Archived from the original on 2020-06-29. Retrieved 2020-12-24.
- ^ Duc Anh Tran & Tu Anh Tran (2021-08-24). "A Promising Step In Vietnam's Fight Against Pirate Streaming Sites - Intellectual Property - Vietnam". Mondaq. Archived from the original on 2021-08-24.
- ^ a b Nguyễn Lê Đông Hải (2021-08-24). "Rise and fall of Vietnam's most popular pirate site". Asia Times. Archived from the original on 2021-08-24. Retrieved 2021-08-24.
- ^ "Trang phim lậu và hàng loạt chiêu trò "thoát xác" trước khi bị khởi tố". laodong.vn (in Vietnamese). Archived from the original on 2021-08-22. Retrieved 2021-08-22.
- ^ Giang Châu (2021-08-23). "Khởi tố hình sự Phimmoi.net - Giải pháp mạnh tay xử lý vấn nạn vi phạm bản quyền". VTV (in Vietnamese). Archived from the original on 2021-08-24. Retrieved 2021-08-24.