ACE Shuts Down the Operation of the “NTG” Release Group
- The NTG release group has been caught by the ACE and agreed to stop publishing pirated content.
- NTG was mainly putting out Amazon Prime shows and films and was known for its high quality.
- A representative of the group has made an apologetic statement, admitting their wrongdoings.
The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) announced the permanent end of the operation of the “NTG” (Not the Grinch) release group. This is a group of pirates who obtain copyright-protected content illegally, convert it to formats that are easier to share online, and then distribute it to a large number of internet users through peer-to-peer networks. These groups have dedicated followerships online and are causing huge damage to rightsholders by making large-scale piracy possible.
NTG in particular has been active for the past three years, uploading 4,600 TV series episodes and films, while they had a “specialization” in Amazon Prime shows. The group’s releases were of high quality, so people preferred them over others. As always in the copyright-infringement world, the more successful you are the more attention you get from copyright protection coalitions like ACE, and NTG was lately flying too close to the Sun.
Jan van Voorn, Executive Vice President and Chief of Global Content Protection for the Motion Picture Association stated:
The statement of a spokesperson of NTG is also hosted on ACE’s announcement and is interestingly apologetic. As the person said:
In August 2020, an international law enforcement operation took down “Sparks”, a pre-release group that was stealing unreleased movies and shows and was leaking them to torrent sites. Although Sparks was operating at a whole different level compared to NTG, torrent pirates have lost yet another quality group, so their options are now thinning.