Popcorn Time is a multi-platform free software BitTorrent client that came with an inbuilt media player. It has often been dubbed as the Netflix for pirates as it serves as an alternative to Netflix which is a subscription-based movie and TV-series streaming global provider.
Popcorn Time was officially launched back in 2014 and since its launch, it has become immensely popular as it is completely free as opposed to Netflix which charges a certain amount of money as subscription charge to its users.
The most famous fork of Popcorn Time is the site popcorntime.io which allows users to watch movies without paying any money. The developers of Popcorn Time were forced to take this and all its other forks offline for a period of four months after a lawsuit was filed against it.
Popcorn Time also has a series of apps for different platforms. These apps were also shut down after Popcorn Time was hit with the lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed by Motion Pictures Association of America (MPAA).
After the lawsuit was filed by MPAA, several of the developers associated with Popcorn Time decided to distance themselves from it. However, the latest reports suggest that the Popcorn Time app is back online and is fully functional at the moment.
However, the developers have introduced some changes to the app. The Hail Hydra update has also been included in it. That being said, the app will still offer the same service that it used to offer in the past. Users will be able to stream pirated movies without any interference. A number of video apps will also be delivered by the new service in this regard.
All the movies that are streamed through Popcorn Time are distributed via BitTorent. A brand new domain called popcorntime.sh will contain the new service that has been introduced by the Popcorn Time team.
This new domain has been created in such a way that it will enable developers to be better aware of the legal risks that is being undertaken by them. Rumors regarding the return of Popcorn Time were doing rounds on the internet for quite some time before it actually happened.
Apparently, certain hints were being dropped which pointed towards the fact that the team that created popcorntime.io were hard at work to bring the service back to life. The final announcement of Popcorn Time’s return came via a blog post on the new website.
The developers also pointed out that keeping in mind the legal risks, they will choose a new path this time around. They will no longer be associated with the active development of the application.
From now onwards, the team will take the aid of Butter to bring the Popcorn Time service to users. The streaming system that was used by the original service will be replaced by Butter.
By default, no pirated material is offered by Butter. The Popcorn Time team believes that taking this step will ensure that they get a little bit more breathing space when it comes to the legal matters. The developers of popcorntime.io are the ones who developed Butter in the past.
Some of the developers of Popcorn Time had previously expressed their desire to introduce a paid VPN anonymizing service. They stated that this service would co-exist with Popcorn Time’s free service.
However, a part of the developing team thought that this would not be such a great idea. They believed that this would draw even more legal attention towards Popcorn Time which is definitely not what the developers want.
However, this time, the developers clarified that the service will remain free and they do not intend on introducing any paid service. They added that no form of donation from users will be accepted by them.