Popcorn Time: Is It The Netflix Of Pirated Content?
Services and applications, such as Hulu, Amazon, iTunes, and Netflix provide users the ability to have music, movies, and television shows within reach. One of things that these services have in common is that they help keep piracy at bay by providing content to paying customers. However, where is the future for these services if pirates provide an option that is just as convenient as the ones these services provide?
Enter Popcorn Time.
Popcorn Time is a new application that is said to work just like Netflix, but with all the content available free of charge – and illegal. The application, which is said to work on Mac, Windows, and Linux, makes use of the same technology that is utilized in piracy sites such as Kick Ass Torrents and The Pirate Bay. The main difference of Popcorn Time from the said sites is users do not need to use a torrent client. Instead, users can just choose a file to watch and the application opens it using its own media player. Users can watch the video file while it seeds in the background, making it available to other users of Popcorn Time.
The application provides a wide variety of videos that can easily be accessed by anyone. It is a brilliant solution that will not make Hollywood and content makers happy.
Creators of the application provide fair warning to users stating a disclaimer that says downloading copyrighted material may be illegal in some countries. The warning appears on the application’s official website, and on the application itself.
One of the application’s creators who is only known by his moniker, Sebastian, says the application is based on Netflix’s streaming technology.
“Everything is automated, we don’t host anything, but take existing information and put it together,” he says.
It also helps that the creators of the application are based in Argentina, which is not subject to the laws of the United States.
According to Popcorn Time’s FAQs, the user will be uploading bits of the movie as they are watching it using the application. After watching, the movie will stay buried in a secret file in the computer until the system is restarted and the file is removed.
Digital Trends says that the cover-your-tracks feature is clever, but it does not change the fact that the user is still torrenting. They also say that there will always be a trail of breadcrumbs left behind each time a movie is watched.
With this new application, content makers must be prepared to face the challenges that lie ahead and think of the program as competition. It they fail to make content available to users on-demand, piracy will continue to flourish and only time knows what will happen when more applications like Popcorn Time are developed.
One reviewers opinion on Popcorn Time
Image via getpopcornti.me
