The Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), in partnership with the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), has successfully shut down MovieBox.ng, a website widely known for streaming pirated films, music, and live sports.
The NCC announced that the takedown took effect on July 20, 2025, as part of a broader effort to curb digital copyright infringement.
Confirming the development in a statement released on Thursday in Abuja, the NCC’s Director-General, Dr. John Asein, said the action was a major milestone in the agency’s renewed fight against online piracy.
The move has reportedly been welcomed by rights holders across Nigeria’s film, music, and broadcast industries.
Piracy networks exploiting mirror domains
According to Dr. Asein, MovieBox.ng operated as part of a larger, coordinated network that uses fallback and clone domains to evade detection and continue distributing pirated content.
“They use multiple mirror domains to access and promote pirated content, with domain histories linked to known piracy operations,” he said.
- He added that the NCC is actively working to identify and disable other related mirror sites associated with MovieBox.ng, ensuring that the platform cannot simply resurface under a new domain.
- The NCC also commended NiRA for its swift action in suspending the domain and called on other internet stakeholders, including service providers and platform intermediaries to respond quickly to takedown requests, as mandated by the Copyright Act of 2022.
“The role of internet stakeholders is crucial in enforcing copyright laws in the digital environment,” Asein noted, stressing that collaboration is key to tackling the rising tide of online piracy.
What you should know
Piracy of movies through digital platforms has become a major challenge for movie producers globally, and Nigerian producers are suffering from the pangs of this act.
A UNESCO report estimates that between 50% and 70% of revenue in Nigeria’s film market is lost to piracy.
Beyond the loss of revenue, this practice also discourages local and foreign investments, as nobody will want to support an endeavour that may not yield the expected outcome.
Piracy also drastically reduces earnings from album and movie sales, thereby shortchanging artistes, actors, producers, and virtually everyone working behind the scenes on a production.
- Filmmakers may also struggle to fund new projects due to their inability to generate the expected revenue from recently released works.
- Aside from streaming platforms like Moviebox, a lot of piracy activities are now being perpetrated through Telegram.
- The platform, which was founded in 2013 by Pavel Durov, is heavily used by movie pirates due to its encryption and user anonymity features, which make it attractive for sharing pirated content.
- In addition, Telegram’s ability to share large files and its capacity to host large groups facilitate the sharing and distribution of pirated content among active communities.
