Another pirate website trying to offer free online streaming has come to an end. This time, it's the anime streaming site "Animflix" that went offline a day ago without prior notice, TorrentFreak reports.
The demise of the anime piracy portal was quick to cause a stir and start discussions among the users. Animeflix had a monthly footfall of tens of millions and built an active Discord community of over 35,000 members.
While the reasons for the site's departure remain unknown, the outlet reports Animeflix dealt with considerable legal pressure in recent months. The operators of Animeflix posted a message on their Discord server:
It is with a heavy heart that we announce the closure of Animeflix. After careful consideration, we have decided to shut down our service effective immediately. We deeply appreciate your support and enthusiasm over the years.
Thank you for being a part of our journey. We hope the joy and excitement of anime continue to brighten your days through other wonderful platforms.
Animeflix has been on the radar of the anti-piracy coalition ACE since last year. Its main domain name "Animeflix.live" was suspended after the copyright holders obtained a "Dynamic+ injunction" [PDF] from the Delhi High Court in May, effective against 26 websites. The court said:
To keep up with the hydra-headed nature of the infringement actions of such infringing domains/websites, this Court finds it fit to grant a ‘Dynamic+ injunction’ to protect copyrighted works as soon as they are created, to ensure that no irreparable loss is caused to the owners of copyrighted works, as there is an imminent possibility of works being uploaded on infringing websites or their newer versions immediately thereafter.
However, it didn't affect the operations much as the piracy portal came up with new domains, but eventually ceased to exist without prior notice to its users. The outlet notes the shutdown comes several years after the original Animeflix went offline permanently.
It would be too early to say if a new Animeflix clone appears on the internet in the future due to its popularity. But the shutdown is part of the ongoing trend where many known piracy portals have gone out of business, including ExtraTorrent, RARBG, and others.
Source: TorrentFreak
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