Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment leading push to end piracy in MENA region Egypt-based platform attracted 155m visits per month DUBAI: The anti-piracy coalition Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment has shut down online piracy network Shahed4U after a joint operation with Egyptian authorities and media companies OSN and MBC Group. Shahed4U is the third such network to be closed down in recent times — after Egybest and MyCima — and marks ACE’s largest takedown in the MENA region. “This spate of unprecedented ACE actions in the MENA region underscores our ever expanding global reach and our growing relationships with law enforcement and local industry around the world,” said Charles Rivkin, chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association and chairman of ACE. “Developing and deepening these local and regional connections, while building on the MPA’s decades of counter-piracy experience, is core to ACE’s global goal of eradicating the illegal distribution of content and protecting the legal marketplace for content creators,” he added. Shahed4U had bases in the Egyptian cities of Alexandria and Cairo offering access to 68,000 pirated TV series and 18,700 films. It comprised more than 118 domains, multiple copycat sites and attracted 155 million visits per month. More than 25 percent of that traffic came from Egypt, with the rest coming from Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Turkey and Jordan. Joe Kawkabani, CEO of OSN, said: “The shutting down of these sites is a great step toward the protection of rights within the media industry and a key effort toward growing the creative ecosystem within the region and globally.” Natasha Matos-Hemingway, chief commercial and marketing officer at Arabic content streaming platform Shahid, said: “This is a significant victory for content creators, studios and production houses who work tirelessly to produce quality TV series and films.”