Torrents Time Lets Anyone Launch Their Own Web Version of Popcorn Time

An anonymous reader writes: Popcorn Time, an app for streaming video torrents, just got its own web version: Popcorn Time Online. Unlike other attempts to bring Popcorn Time into the browser, this one is powered by a tool called Torrents Time, which delivers the movies and TV shows via an embedded torrent client. Oh, and the developers have released the code so that anyone can create their own version. If Popcorn Time is Hollywood's worst nightmare, Torrents Time is trying to make sure Hollywood can't wake up.

Comments

Want big Hollywood movies? Eliminate Hollywood

[raymorris]

> Torrents Time is trying to make sure Hollywood can't wake up.

This is the attitude I don't understand.

If you don't like big-budget Hollywood movies and prefer independent films, that's cool. You can watch plenty of independent films online and offline. I take a similar tack with software - I don't care for how Microsoft treats their customers, so I don't use their software. I've been using open source for decades.

What makes no sense is "I love $200 million cinema spectaculars so much, I'll steal them to make it more difficult to fund the next one."

Yeah, studios who spend a billion dollars making sure three movies try pretty hard to recoup the cost, mostly from the one that turns out to be popular, and that includes all the typical "big business" stuff that goes on when hundreds of millions of dollars are involved. It seems to me that if you like Star Wars and you want to see the next sequel (and have the studio spend $x00 million to make it), the LAST thing you'd want to do is damage the studio that makes them. You'd BUY the DVD , or at least toss in $2 to stream it, if you wanted more movies like that, I'd think.

Personally, I don't care for the big-budget films like Star Wars, so I don't stream, rent, or buy them (and I certainly don't steal them). I rent the low-budget comedies I like for $2 at Redbox, which encourages theatres to make another movie like it, which I'll also rent. I'm not trying to destroy the people who produce the stuff I like.

Re:Want big Hollywood movies? Eliminate Hollywood

[Anonymous Coward]

>What makes no sense is "I love $200 million cinema spectaculars so much, I'll steal them to make it more difficult to fund the next one."

You're right. It makes no sense. I mean, as far as I know, no movie has ever been stolen, ever.

Now, I'll assume you meant to say pirated, so we can move on from that mistake.

>Yeah, studios who spend a billion dollars making sure three movies try pretty hard to recoup the cost, mostly from the one that turns out to be popular, and that includes all the typical "big business" stuff that goes on when hundreds of millions of dollars are involved. It seems to me that if you like Star Wars and you want to see the next sequel (and have the studio spend $x00 million to make it), the LAST thing you'd want to do is damage the studio that makes them. You'd BUY the DVD , or at least toss in $2 to stream it, if you wanted more movies like that, I'd think.

So, step 1:

Piracy doesn't "damage" the studio. It doesn't physically damage it, and it doesn't monetarily damage it. I don't give a shit what the studio's opinions on that are, I would like to see how you can prove damage from piracy. Hint: You can't, except in the case of decent counterfeiting where the buyer really thought they were buying the real deal. All you can point to is supposed losses. This is like suggesting snowfall damages ice cream sales. The world thinks you're an idiot when you even suggest it, though a weak argument can be presented to say it could possibly lower it, though once again, no real hard evidence exists on the matter except (If they were as nasty as the MPAA!) from the ice cream companies.

Again, moving on from that mistake in your logic (Again... This is probably why you're having a hard time understanding. You have massive gaps in your logic that need filling in.)

Now we have that in mind, when I rent the movie from redbox, and 500 others rent the same movie, how much money does the studio make from the 501st rental? Answer: $0. In fact, they'll never see a dime after the purchase of the disc, which isn't even a viewing. So legally watching the film can easily result in a $0 profit for the studio. Which brings me to an important point: Piracy doesn't lower studio profits. A lack of income does. Piracy and a lack of income are separate issues, though at times they can become intertwined (For example, if the studio locked up the movie to the point that rentals were impossible, and charged $5,000,000 to watch it, piracy would be 100% and income would be $0. But this relationship between price and piracy becomes so much more miniscule at $1).

>You'd BUY the DVD , or at least toss in $2 to stream it, if you wanted more movies like that, I'd think.

I watch it in a movie theatre. Want to know why? Because DVD sales mean a lot of people other than the studio get a massive cut before they see a thin dime. Same with streaming. Guess how much take the studio has when you see it at the movie theatre? The average is 90% of your ticket price.

So, overall, piracy and sales are only slightly intertwined except in extreme cases (For example, I pirated a piece of software required to complete my studies at school. There was no educational version at the time. It cost $13,000 15 years ago. At that price, I would never have been able to afford to be at the school in the first place. Thus there was no sale and piracy increased, simply due to extortionate costs.)

At the more likely pricing of $1, we have to consider what causes the piracy if you'd like to stop it. First answer is at that price a large number of pirates are doing it because that's the only way they consume media. You will need to completely ignore those people. They are not customers and never will be. They'll be happy munching on re-runs of I Love Lucy for the rest of their lives if somehow their piracy actually led to the demise of all new media production. Let's focus on the remaining consumers, who are likely composed of those who pirate due to opportunit

The bullshit Capitalist "threat".

[geekmux]

"...If Popcorn Time is Hollywood's worst nightmare, Torrents Time is trying to make sure Hollywood can't wake up."

Alright, enough of this bullshit. Everyone listen up. There are more than enough consumers on this planet to accommodate the greedy executives who run the capitalist corporations, as well as accommodating those who don't feel like paying them a damn dime.

Let's put it this way. How many sales records did the latest Star Wars movie crush in a matter of weeks? I rest my case. Now kindly STFU already about capitalism being killed by piracy. It's not happening nor is it ever going to, and the last fucking thing the lawyers need are the geeks themselves confirming this lie in order to justify more Orwellian anti-piracy laws.

Re:No use fighting it

[Frobnicator]

Movie companies would do a much better job if they stopped trying to squash any sort of piracy, and focused more on providing what people want, in the form they want, when they want it, at a convenient price.

There will always be a guy selling DVDs on the corner, frequently backed up by organized crime. I'm not so certain that people who are less committed to that lifestyle will be always there and impossible to stop. That ease of participation relies on freedoms are now taken for granted which I feel may well become very eroded in the future.

That misses the point.

If the companies provided what the consumers wanted, in the form they wanted, at a convenient price, the guy on the corner has no customers and goes to a different process. The content creators get paid for the content, the customers can enjoy the content, and everyone is happy. (As typical, customers would always prefer to pay less, producers would like to be paid more, but ultimately a happy balance can be reached if they honestly tried.)

Systems like netflix, hulu, dramafever, amazon video, they are getting closer to what the customers wants. In an even better world all those off-catalog shows, the crappy direct-to-DVD releases, these would also be available in the catalog rather than the constant Disney-esque vault where availability is intentionally reduced to get more coin.

The fact that they are present at all on Torrent systems is enough to let the companies know to add it to the catalogs. If I knew I could watch {popular title} from Redbox for a buck per day, or from some paid service where there are no scratched discs, and watch it on a web player on whatever device I want for a time period, sign me up.

Simply: If it is available in a torrent but not available in the authorized service, the authorized service is insufficient.

The company needs to stop providing insufficient service. When one business gives insufficient service, and another source offers the service, it is clear what will happen to the business. Adapt or die. These companies don't even need to go through the process of digitizing the works; when they discover what is on torrents but not in their catalog, put the ripped torrent version among their authorized versions. What happens when Disney finds a rip from some old VHS they haven't migrated? Instead of trying to shut it down, Disney should find the best ripped copy and put that among their (fully paid and properly authorized) products.

If everything were available through a proper, above board, fully legal paid service, and there was one place I could go to get yesterday's TV show, this week's big blockbuster release, reruns of my favorites from the last decade, reruns from the 1980s, 1970s, 1960s, and even all the old back catalog movies clear back to the 1920s when the Golden Age of Cinema started, then the guy at the corner selling bootleg copies would vanish. If the mere presence of a show on torrents was enough to get it added to the proper legal channels, then the need for them would precipitously drop.

It would not vanish completely, there are some people who refuse to pay anything and also refuse to find any friends to share passwords and accounts. If the legal version is immediately available to paying customers, at a convenient price, on a convenient location, viewable on a convenient device, the unsatisfied needs that drive torrented movies would drop off the radar.

Re:No use fighting it

[Fire_Wraith]

Contrast it with music. Is there really a problem with music piracy anymore? Not that I'm aware of at least. There's lots of options, between various digital stores (iTunes, Amazon) and various streaming services that cover a very wide catalog. About the only thing I can't get easily is something like foreign bands that are unknown in the USA, and even that's getting better. Maybe if I was looking for very specific live performances or something, I dunno - but certainly not something the average person is going to run into in a typical month or even year.

Contrast that to movies and TV shows, of which some are available, but it's still highly segregated, they regularly yank stuff out of the catalog to create artificial scarcity, etc. They still haven't gotten with the idea fully. It may be better than it was five years ago, but that's not saying much.

Re:No use fighting it

[squiggleslash]

I have Amazon Prime and we did some trials of Netflix and Hulu, and I can honestly say that it was disappointing finding nothing I was actively looking for on any of the systems. I remember spending an evening just going through a list of movies I've been wanting to watch for a while, being utterly astounded when none of them showed up on each list. Some movies were classics, some were cult movies, some were "just movies I saw in the 1980s that I'd like to watch again", some were blockbusters that hadn't been in the cinema for a couple of years. And... none were there.

Now, sure, I can find something to watch with all three, but in terms of the "I want to watch X, I haven't watched it in a while" itch, we're a long way away from having services (or even a combination thereof) that do that.

I'd be very surprised if Netflix + Hulu + Amazon Prime = 5% of mainstream movies made since 1976.

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

Dunno about the previous poster, but for me it's not about being entitled. It's the fact that when it comes to movies/TV shows, the paid is almost always worse than what you can get off of torrents. I can get a DRM-free 1080p MKV file with integrated subtitles and commentary track for various movies that I can move around to whatever devices I own, without relying on a fast Internet connection to be able to watch them. No-one sells movies in the form that I want. Once you've had years of such a standard of movie files, it's very hard to downgrade yourself to streaming of a lower quality just because it's legal. If I'm gonna spend money, it better be on par to what the Internet community provides for free otherwise I feel like a chump.

Honestly, that's the situation. You can't beat piracy when you provide a lower quality option. Now, I don't feel like I'm entitled to the content just because it's not being sold in the way I'd prefer it. But I don't want to miss out and there are no realistic penalties that I'm ever likely to face. It's socially accepted to pirate, so I just don't care, and since the world isn't moving in the direction necessary to change this, why change myself?