Popcorn Time Shuts Down Amid Legal Threats, Despite Claiming the Project is Legal [UPDATE: It's Back]
Popcorn Time is back online and fully functional thanks to the fact that the project was hosted on Github, making it easy to download both the installer and the source code, leading torrent site YTS to take over the project, reports TorrentFreak.
“We are in a better position copyright wise because it’s built on our API, it’s as if we have built another interface to our website,” YTS developer Jduncanator told TorrentFreak. “We are no worse off managing the project than we would be just supplying the movies.”
“It’s our vision at YTS that we see through projects like these and that just because they create a little stir in the public, it doesn’t mean they are shut down.”
The latest version of Popcorn Time can be downloaded here.
Original Story
Oh, Popcorn Time… how quickly you came and went. Just a few days after the app arrived on the scene with its incredibly easy to use interface that gave users access to thousands of illegally uploaded movies, it has shut down. This shut down comes after the installer was pulled from the original web host. In a blog post on Medium titled Goodbye Popcorn Time, one of the anonymous co-founders of the project says that they are shutting down the app due to threats of legal action against them (even though they maintain that the project is completely legal).
Our experiment has put us at the doors of endless debates about piracy and copyright, legal threats and the shady machinery that makes us feel in danger for doing what we love. And that’s not a battle we want a place in.
Nevertheless, the Popcorn Time team is proud of their app and achievements that came from it. The app was downloaded in every country around the world according to the blog post. The fact that this happened shows that that the movie industry needs to change. As the co-founder writes it shows that “tons of people agreed in unison that the movie industry has way too many ridiculous restrictions on way too many markets.”
Then the post goes on to say something that many tech industry people agree with: “Piracy is not a people problem. It’s a service problem.”
I agree with that too. If you can offer a competitive product offering that is super easy to use and extremely convenient people will use it. That’s why the Netflix model has blown up and done so well.
If you try to open the Popcorn Time app currently it sits on a “Please wait…” loading screen, so it does appear that it is in fact down for the count.