123Movies was a notorious network of free film-streaming websites based in Vietnam, enabling users to watch movies without paying. In March 2018, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) declared it the world's "most popular illegal site," estimating it drew a staggering 98 million monthly visitors. Just weeks later, it was abruptly shut down following a criminal investigation by Vietnamese authorities, with its homepage posting a note urging users to "respect filmmakers by paying for movies." Over its lifetime, the service repeatedly changed domains (from 123movies.to to gomovies, gostream, and finally 123movieshub) and even launched a separate anime-only site, AnimeHub.to, in December 2017. Although the primary site was closed, the MPAA's October 2018 update noted that numerous copycat sites had already emerged in at least eight other countries, proving the persistence of such pirate streaming networks.