"Piracy Netflix" torrent streaming app Popcorn Time is saved by fans

18/03/2014

@thetechblock - Twitter

An app named Popcorn Time has been has been terrifying movie chiefs and TV network heads around the world these past few months. The app, dubbed the "Piracy Netflix", offers high quality streaming of a range of top movie titles and box sets for absolutely no cost.

Created by anonymous developers from Argentina, Popcorn Time essentially revolutionises the intricate world of piracy and the results are quite staggering. Users do not need to be savvy in the ways of downloading tricky torrent files and instead can just browse a large library of content and hit play on the film or show of their choice.

Popcorn Time utilises torrent file sharing technology and harnesses it to pull together a huge library of shared films and TV shows. However, the app was taken offline last week as the developers were coming under increased pressure from authorities.

The developers have made the project completely open source so the code is available online for anybody willing to work on the app. And it seems that plenty of fans believe strongly enough in the project to put in the time in getting the app up and running again. Popcorn Time has returned to action again in the past few days with its hiatus lasting less than a week.

The developers certainly do not feel they are doing anything wrong or illegal saying "Popcorn Time doesn't host any copyrighted content, the app is based in a decentralised model, working with services that already exist and are used daily by millions of people worldwide".

This app represents everything that Hollywood feared as it packages piracy in an attractive app which is just easy to use as Netflix. It makes pirated material far more accessible to the general public than traditional file sharing through torrent files.