Thailand’s DSI Police Police Shut Down Pirated Movies Website

Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation (DSI) said in a Thursday press conference that authorities have raided and arrested the administrator of a website that streamed 3,000 pirated movies online and earned about 5 million baht (164,729 U.S. dollars) a month from online gambling advertisements.

“The DSI has found that the Thai man who was running the pirated movie website… was living abroad,” said DSI director-general Paisit Wongmuang. He also hired a 22-year-old man living in northern Thailand as administrator for the website, Movie2free.com.

“We have already arrested the administrator early November and shut down the website,” said Paisit, adding “the site had used sophisticated equipment that made it hard for authorities to track it down, and had set up a server abroad.”

The DSI chief said Thailand was requested by the Motion Picture Association in the United States and Hollywood copyright agents from eight movie camps, asking the DSI to investigate the website.

DSI found out the website, which opened in 2014, drew about 10 million views a day. It was Thailand’s most-visited pirated movie website and also was also on the global top-list of pirated movie sites.