Movie2k was blocked last week in the UK and now seems to be down around the world. Read all the details about the black out on this popular streaming movie source.
Is Movie2k down? What happened to Movie2k? When will Movie2k go back online? These are questions many loyal fans of the German streaming movie website are asking. It seems Movie2k stopped working and has been unavailable for movie streaming around the world for the last several hours. Just last week, the illegal streaming movie site was banned by the UK, but now it seems the service is blocked for all users as each time someone tries to log in he finds Movie2k just isn't working. In addition, the Movie2k BlogSpot featuring information about the website and a full listing of movies also seems to be down.
So as of 2:00 p.m. EST it appears the German streaming movie website Movie2k is definitely down. The exact cause at this point is unknown, and it's anyone's guess whether or not the Movie2k site will go back online, but it is suspected copyright violations are to blame.
As mentioned above, last week the UK blocked users from accessing Movie2k issuing a court order against Movie2k and Download4all websites in the UK.
What is the MPAA and Why Did They Block Movie2K?
According to Wikipedia:
"The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is an American trade association that represents the six big Hollywood studios. Founded in 1922 as the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA), it advances the business interests of its members and administers the MPAA film rating system. Former Democratic Senator Chris Dodd is the current Chairman.
"As part of its campaign to curb copyright infringement, the MPAA fights against sharing copyrighted works via peer-to-peer file-sharing networks. The MPAA's anti-piracy campaign has gained much publicity and criticism."
One such site which strongly criticizes the actions of the MPAA is Torrentfreak. Torrentfreak is a blog dedicated to reporting the latest news and trends on the BitTorrent protocol and file sharing, and reported that the block on Movie2k website was at the request of the Motion Pictures Association of America (MPAA) and was being honored by Internet service providers (ISPs) in the UK as well as a number of mobile Internet providers as well, including Virgin Media.
The MPAA received the court order after arguing that the Movie2K and Download4All broke the UK's Copyright, Designs and Patents Act by offering the ability to download or stream latex releases.
Virgin issued a statement last week concerning its decision to comply with the court order and block Movie2k in the UK. "Virgin Media has received an order from the Courts requiring us to prevent access to this site in order to help protect against copyright infringement ... the Courts require us to prevent access to a certain site, for example in order to help protect Copyright - this is a legal obligation we must comply with."
When Will Movie2k Go Back Online? Are There Other Sites Like Movie2k Available?
Though we don't know the precise reasons why Movie2k is down, if it is due to a block related to copyright infringement, it's very possible that a proxy server will soon be set up allowing the Movie2k website to run again and be accessed by users. Any number of free media activists have spoken up about blocks against copyrighted media, letting the MPAA know their blocks are in vain. As we know, PirateBay, another source of copyright-infringing materials, has been blocked in the past by entertainment companies' copyright rules, yet even now if you know where to look, PirateBay is still accessible and existent. If Movie2k is down due to copyright issues and not some other problem like an error in "name servers", I imagine it won't be long before the block is skirted and users can get back to streaming media from the popular German website.