Popcorn Time: the most convenient program for viewing torrents

“Popcorn Time is so good at pirating movies that it scares,” writes Time magazine about the new open source program Popcorn Time , a beta version of which was released a few days ago for Linux, Windows 7+ and OS X 10.7+.

It is no secret that the latest versions of BitTorrent clients allow you to watch movies directly during the download, without waiting for the download to finish. Viewing can begin almost immediately. The developers of Popcorn Time used this feature, plus they created a catalog of all the films available on world torrent trackers - and the result was a very convenient program that is easy to understand even for a housewife. Choose any movie from the catalog - and start watching. Such a free alternative to Netflix, only with a more comprehensive catalog and operating in all countries of the world.

For several days now Popcorn Time tops the list of the most popular projects on Github. In 24 hours from the moment of publication, the interface of Popcorn Time was translated into six languages, and now a couple of dozen more have been added to them, including Russian .
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Technically, the program works very simply. It combines a list of torrents through the YTS API , the subtitle database OpenSubtitles and the TheMovieDB database with metadata.

It is not clear how copyright holders are going to fight with such a program if it gets popular with the public (and this can hardly be doubted). All torrent trackers can not be closed, and open source program is not prohibited. "We do not expect legal claims," says lead project developer Sebastian from Argentina. - We do not place anything, and none of the developers earn money from it. There is no advertising, no premium accounts, no paid subscription or anything like that. It’s just an experiment for learning and working together. ”

"I think that Hollywood will make every effort to attack Popcorn Time," writes Time. - but free and free project will be difficult to close. The developers have shown that movie piracy can be with an intuitive interface and user friendly. If film studios do not change their prime schedules and don’t give up old business models that prevent new films from going online, they’ll have to be wary of apps like Popcorn Time. ”