A Government Agency Files a Complaint Against the Operators of the 'TinyMovies' Website

The Secretary of the Cultural-Artistic Products Protection Headquarters, affiliated with the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, announced on Tuesday, November 6, that the operators of the film streaming site 'TinyMovies' have been prosecuted following a complaint from this headquarters. According to ILNA news agency, Mehdi Yazdani stated that the Cultural-Artistic Products Protection Headquarters was the authority that filed the complaint against the TinyMovies site, adding: 'The Headquarters for the Protection and Combat Against the Unauthorized Duplication and Distribution of Cinematic and Audiovisual Works, both physically and in cyberspace, cooperates with the Cyber Police and the Judiciary to address any illegal distribution of cultural products.' When asked whether the operators of the TinyMovies site had requested a legal permit to distribute cultural products, he said: 'No permit request had been submitted by this site.' TinyMovies is referred to as the 'most popular' site for downloading foreign films and series in Iran. Earlier, following reports about the arrest of Amir Ahmadi, the manager, and five employees of the TinyMovies site in September of this year, the Minister of Communications and Information Technology stated on October 29 that the site had not been filtered, but had been shut down due to the arrest of its operators and the shutdown of its servers. Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, in an interview with the state-run IRIB news agency, stated that the site had not been filtered and that his ministry and the working group for determining internet criminal cases had 'not played a role' in its shutdown. He added that there was no further information available regarding the case of the site's operators. Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, the public and revolutionary prosecutor of Tehran, reported on October 26 the arrest of six individuals related to the preparation, dubbing, and sale of films he described as 'vulgar and obscene.' He stated that the operators of this site had broadcast 18,000 foreign films and series after dubbing them over the past three years. Meanwhile, the website 'Digiato,' active in the internet sector, reported based on 'rumors' that the reason for the shutdown of the 'TinyMovies' site was a 'complaint from rival online film streaming networks and sites.' According to this website, the subscription fee for the 'TinyMovies' website was 4,000 tomans per month, and between 300 to 400 people registered on this website each month. The report stated that 'the high speed of this website in translating and dubbing cinematic products was so significant that even the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting had published several films that had been dubbed by this website.' Meanwhile, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran stated that the way copyright laws are enforced for non-Iranian cultural products in Iran 'effectively contributes to creating a monopoly in the distribution of these products.' According to this campaign, for example, if a company in Iran obtains a license to distribute a foreign film or video game for the first time from government bodies such as the Ministry of Culture or the National Foundation of Computer Games, the exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute this film will belong to that company. This report comes at a time when copyright laws for foreign films and written and digital works do not exist in Iran. Officials in Hassan Rouhani's government have emphasized support for internet businesses in recent years, especially after the Vienna nuclear agreement. However, in recent years, several activists in the internet business sector in Iran have been arrested. Among them, Arash Zad, the editor-in-chief of the 'Weblogina' website, was arrested on September 1, 2015, while leaving Iran at Tehran's Imam Khomeini Airport 'by the intelligence forces of the Revolutionary Guards.' The 'Weblogina' website, which he was the editor and founder of, is one of the most well-known in the field of information technology in Iran. He is also one of the founders of an association called 'Kafshdoozak' aimed at 'increasing women's participation in technology and internet business.'