After two years of going off the internet scene, the once popular Popcorn Time is back providing users of the extremely easy “Netflix, but for piracy” app to search elsewhere for movies and TV shows. As more and more people get self-quarantine in an effort to curb the spread of the novel CODIV-19 virus, the streaming app has returned, Motherboard reports.
Popcorn Time was scrutinized when it was released in 2014. The streaming app became extremely popular for people who wanted to access films that were still in theaters — or those not on streaming services — but with a far more polished interface than often-sketchy piracy websites that required users to hunt down, verify, and download links themselves.
Popcorn Time, on the other hand, effectively removed the downloading process, and streamlined the viewing experience, making it nearly as simple as legal streaming (despite the fact that the service still relies on the same BitTorrent technology as regular torrenting). As a result, the movie streaming app was shut down multiple times, and it had its IP blocked in a number of countries. Motherboard also notes that while other versions of Popcorn Time are active right now, “the user interface of this one and its release appear to be closely affiliated with earlier Popcorn Time projects, based on domain redirects and URLs.”
