Popcorn Time Users Being Sued By Hollywood Studio

Popcorn Time is a free program, which has been dubbed as Netflix for pirates, and it allows its users to torrent movies and TV shows. People who use Popcorn Time can search for films and shows right from within the program. According to PC World, Popcorn Time’s interface rivals legitimate streaming services. However, there has been legal controversy surrounding Popcorn Time, with a law firm suing 11 Popcorn Time users for watching the 2014 film, The Cobbler. Now, the same law firm is suing users for watching the 2015 film, Survivor.

Carl Crowell, an attorney based in Oregon, has filed a lawsuit that targets 16 Comcast subscribers who are located in Oregon. The attorney is seeking the statutory minimum of $750 from each defendant who watched the flick via Popcorn Time.

Popcorn Time does warn users that they may be breaking copyright laws in their country, as Crowell noted. Crowell has also noted that in the previous lawsuit.

According to Ars Technica, the lawsuit is titled Survivor Productions Inc. V. Anonymous Users of Popcorn Time. The complaint says that Popcorn Time only serves one purpose and one purpose alone, which is to steal content that is copyrighted. The complaint also says that Survivor, which stars Pierce Brosnan, Milla Jojovich, and Dylan McDermott, was promoted to Popcorn Time users.

Survivor Productions claims that users of Popcorn Time caused producers of the film great and irreparable injury. According to PC Mag, the plaintiff said that acts committed by Popcorn Users were willful and intentional.

Survivor Productions took a quote from Rep. Lamar Smith, of Texas, saying that services like Popcorn Time, and counterfeiting and piracy, costs the U.S. economy billions of dollars every single year. It also costs thousands of jobs every single year.

The films and shows on Popcorn Time are pirated, and ever since it has launched, it has become a target by some in Hollywood. One reason why Popcorn Time is one of the most highly-targeted services of its kind is because of how popular it is. Popcorn Time was started in 2014, but it was taken offline before returning to the internet, after the servers were moved overseas.

As for the lawsuits against Popcorn Time’s users, it is not really clear what will exactly happened. The users have Popcorn Time have yet to be personally identified, but their IP addresses, as well as their general location, has been obtained. The plaintiff did say that if Comcast helps them, they may be able to identify the users.

[Image by Tim P. Whitby / Getty Images]