South Africans have taken to social media to voice their frustration after popular streaming site My Family Cinema – also known under names such as Vela and Konex Cinema – announced it is shutting down.

In recent days, users of these apps were greeted with the message: “Due to copyright issues, this brand must permanently end its service. We sincerely thank you for your trust and support over the years. Hope our product has created wonderful memories for your family. Wish you all the best in discovering new apps that enrich your digital life.”

The message is followed by a ‘retry’ button, which leads nowhere.

The streaming site worked with a cloud-based service that gave South African users access to content from platforms such as DStv, Showmax, Amazon Prime Video and Netflix for around R80 per month.

South Africans have taken to social media to express frustration after paying – some for a full year in advance – only to lose their money. Refunds appear unlikely.

Unconfirmed reports suggest the shutdown is linked to an operation in Argentina in which a massive criminal network was dismantled. In September, Spanish soccer league LaLiga welcomed the operation, which is said to have up to eight million paying users worldwide and a potential reach of over 20 million clients.

My Family Cinema’s policies

On its website, My Family Cinema presented itself as a legal platform providing ‘cloud-based services’ to paying subscribers, and claimed to operate under the laws of the Netherlands. According to its terms and conditions, the site’s content was ‘for personal use’ and users were prohibited from redistributing or reproducing any material hosted there.

The company’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act Policy further stated that it ‘responds to any infringement notice and takes appropriate action’, adding that the protection of intellectual property was ‘of utmost importance’. It outlined a process for copyright owners to submit takedown requests, claiming that the platform would act ‘expeditiously’ to remove allegedly infringing material.

Its disclaimer emphasised that all information on the site was provided ‘in good faith’ and that the company took ‘no responsibility or warranties’ for the completeness or accuracy of its content. Visitors were told that use of the service was ‘at their own risk’.

However, these statements appear at odds with widespread reports and investigations suggesting the platform distributed copyrighted material from mainstream streaming services without authorisation.

‘Piracy takes food off tables’

In a June statement, MultiChoice – Africa’s largest investor in local content – said piracy is a ‘silent theft’ that robs thousands of actors, writers and technicians of their livelihoods.

The company joined forces with cybersecurity company Irdeto and South African law enforcement agencies to combat what it describes as an escalating crisis. MultiChoice says over 17 million visits were made to the continent’s top piracy sites in just five countries, with South Africa accounting for more than five million. Working with Irdeto, it has implemented AI-driven monitoring, forensic watermarking and payment disruption tools to identify and shut down illegal streams.

According to MultiChoice head of corporate affairs Litlhare Moteetee-Murendo, piracy ‘takes food off tables’ and ‘silences African voices’. The group says its campaign is aimed at protecting the creative industries that contribute around 3% to South Africa’s GDP.

Caxton Network News has reached out to SAPS to find out if the shutdown is linked to the operation in Argentina or a possible local crackdown on similar sites.

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