The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) today announced success in the unprecedented fourth wave of Operation 404 in Brazil. Operation 404, a major Brazilian multi-jurisdictional effort designed to curb digital piracy throughout Brazil and other Portuguese speaking end users’ countries, was first deployed on November 2019 and continues to be the most successful online anti-piracy operation in the country’s history.

As part of the extensive operation, authorities shut down 226 websites and 461 piracy apps including several high-profile targets submitted by ACE.

Raids in Brazil by Civil State law enforcement officer were simultaneously carried out across 11 Brazilian States and were coordinated by the Secretariat of Integrated Operations (SEOPI) Cyber Lab resulted in the seizure of all notebooks, desktop computers, tablets and smartphones found in the premises of the pirate operators, and multiple temporary arrest warrants were carried out.

“ACE congratulates our partners in the Ministry of Justice, especially the SEOPI’s Cyber Lab team, the State Civil Police Chiefs and respective teams, the ANCINE and US and UK government entities and law enforcement agencies for their continued success with what might be called an established tradition,” said Jan van Voorn, Executive Vice President and Chief of Global Content Protection for the Motion Picture Association. “The level of cooperation among Brazilian, American and British government and teams has proven to be very effective and we look forward to continuing to build upon this win in other actions throughout the region.”

The theft of digital content harms both local and foreign films and businesses, threatens jobs, undermines investment, reduces tax contributions to governments, and stifles creativity.

ACE was founded in 2017 by the MPA and many of the world’s leading media and technology companies to combine efforts and resources to jointly combat the threat and prevalence of online piracy. ACE’s governing board is comprised of the MPA’s six members – Disney, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount, Sony Pictures, and Warner Bros. – as well as Amazon and Apple TV+.  Since its creation, ACE has achieved many successful global enforcement actions against illegal streaming services and sources of unauthorized content and their operators.

This article was first published on Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment.