What is Popcorn Time and Why Should Hollywood be Afraid?
By Jonathan A.
In a few words, Popcorn Time is a Free Version of Netflix.
Popcorn time allows for people the ability to play movies through torrents with one click. The interface of the app looks similar to Netflix and allows for easy navigation and use of the program.
The program has gained popularity around the world, where movie restrictions have put serious limits in the amount of available content. This popularity ended up causing the app to be shut down by the original creators.
Popcorn Time announced that it was ceasing operations about a month ago in a blog post.
“Popcorn Time is shutting down today. Not because we ran out of energy, commitment, focus or allies. But because we need to move on with our lives.
Our experiment has put us at the doors of endless debates about piracy and copyright, legal threats and the shady machinery that makes us feel in danger for doing what we love. And that’s not a
battle we want a place in.
But, since popularity grew for the program several copycat programs have been developed.
So, What does this mean for Hollywood?
As Popcorn Time lawyers have filtered through copyright infringement cases and laws, they argue that it is essentially a legal program since, users of the program are not actually downloading movies but instead are, streaming them to their computer. Although it provided access to pirated content, Popcorn Time claimed that it did not violate any laws.
“As a designer I love the challenge of simplification. Take something hard for the common user and make it usable. I have a lot of friends who don’t understand torrents and I wanted to make it easy and effortless to use torrent technology,” one of the app’s designers said in an interview with Torrent Freak.
This is serious threat to Hollywood’s movie industry as producers, production companies, directors, and employees work hard to produce to a project in order to get a return on their investment. But, with programs such as Popcorn Time, their earnings are cut severely.
Consider Popcorn Time doing to the movie industry what Napster did to the music industry.
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