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

Posted by timothy on from the this-oughtta-be-good dept.

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.

5 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. Hollywood proposed alternative sign by NotDrWho · · Score: 5, Funny

    Jail Time

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    SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
  2. No use fighting it by Fire_Wraith · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "You can't stop the signal, Mal. Everything goes somewhere, and I go everywhere." They're never going to stop piracy. It's like trying to play whack-a-mole. 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. Some people will always pirate, sure, but 99% of people aren't going to ever bother if they can get what they're looking for conveniently and without paying through the nose for it.

    1. Re:No use fighting it by Frobnicator · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

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      //TODO: Think of witty sig statement
    2. Re:No use fighting it by squiggleslash · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

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      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  3. The bullshit Capitalist "threat". by geekmux · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "...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.