Cineby piracy empire announces permanent shutdown

The operators of Cineby, one of the world’s largest digital piracy ecosystems, have announced the permanent shutdown of their streaming services. The closure includes sister sites Cineplay and Fmovies+.

The shutdown is being executed in stages. Following the redirection of mirror domains and the disabling of anime, sports, and file download features, the film and series streaming components are being deactivated as of August 31, 2026. All user accounts have been deleted, and the final domains are scheduled to go offline permanently on September 5, 2026.

While no specific reason was provided for the decision, the shutdown follows a year of increasing legal pressure across multiple countries. According to the Motion Picture Association, the Cineby main site alone recorded over 160 million visits in the last month, with the sister services attracting millions of additional visitors.