The phrase originates from highly visited regional indexing websites that aggregated direct download links and embedded web players for newly released films. These sites gained massive traction across Southeast Asia due to specific market demands:
The government and industry bodies (FINAS in Malaysia) have tried to block "pencuri" sites, but the pirates are hydra-headed. When one site is blocked, ten more appear, often hosted on servers in jurisdictions with lax copyright laws. The use of Telegram and WhatsApp groups for distribution has made enforcement nearly impossible. The "pencuri" have become sophisticated logicians, arguing that if a film is not legally available in a region with adequate subtitles within one week of its global release, then the distributor has abandoned that market, making piracy a "service recovery" rather than a crime. pencuri movies sub malay top