Operators agree to shut down ‘Openload’ after ACE settlement

• The site was being operated through 1,000 servers in Romania, France and Germany, says ACE.
• With millions of regular visitors, file-hosting site generates more traffic than popular streaming services such as Hulu or HBO Go.
• Alliance terms shutting down of Openload as a major win.

Renowned file sharing site Openload has agreed to shut down its services following a coalition of major studios (ACE) reached an agreement with site operators.

According to Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the site was being operated through 1,000 servers in Romania, France and Germany.

It was learned that ACE — the coalition of the five major studios, plus Netflix, Amazon, and several other content providers — was pursuing the case for several months, and recently brought a legal action in Germany against the operators. The operators — who also run Streamango — agreed to shutter both sites and pay a “significant damage award.”

With millions of regular visitors, file-hosting site Openload generates more traffic than popular streaming services such as Hulu or HBO Go.

This is no surprise, as Openload.co alone has an estimated 65 million visits per month, according to SimilarWeb.

“The website is no longer available due to copyright infringement. You will be redirected to alliance4creativity.com,” it reads.

Initially, ACE didn’t immediately didn’t give any word on the development, but the coalition has now confirmed that it reached an agreement with the operator of the sites. As a result, many related Openload domains such as oload.cc, oload.club and oload.download, openload.pw and oloadcdn.net are now offline as well.

According to ACE, the shutdown is a major win.