The ran a victory lap on Tuesday, after announcing the shutdown of movie and television torrent sites Popcorn Time and YTS. The shutdowns resulted from major legal wins in Canada and New Zealand.

The MPAA last month obtained injunctions against the sites in those countries, effectively blocking them from further operation. The two court decisions originally were sealed, but they have been released, the MPAA said.

Popcorn Time and YTS existed for the sole purpose of distributing stolen movies and television shows, with no compensation going to the people who created them, according to MPAA Chairman Chris Dodd, a former U.S. senator.

"By shutting down these illegal commercial enterprises, which operate on a massive global scale, we are protecting not only our members creative work and the hundreds of innovative, legal distribution platforms, but also the millions of people whose jobs depend on a vibrant motion picture and television industry," he said.

Legal Trail

Six member companies of the MPAA last month filed suit in federal court in Canada, claiming that three Canadian operators of the Popcorntime.io fork enabled, authorized and induced copyright infringement of movies and television shows.

The Popcorntime.io fork had 1.5 million unique visitors just during the month of July, MPAA said. The court issued an injunction on Oct. 16, ordering the shutdown of the main site and corresponding app.

Around the same time, MPAA filed a separate suit against a New Zealand resident who operated YTS, accusing him of facilitating copyright infringement. The New Zealand court granted an injunction against the site, which had a global Alexa ranking of 584 and 3.4 million unique visitors in August, according to Comscore.

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