Popcorn Time has come to be known as a sort of "Netflix for pirated movies," but until now prospective streamers always had to download the somewhat dubious Popcorn Time application to start viewing films.
That's not the case anymore. On Tuesday, the anonymous team behind the Popcorn Time brand launched a new Netflix-style streaming website that allows people to watch movie torrents right from within their web browser. And because Popcorn Time's servers handle everything, you won't be downloading any torrents onto your computer — you'll be streaming them.
The new interface features a simple search bar where you can input a movie title — a departure from the tile grid of movie titles Popcorn Time users will be used to seeing.
Popcorn Time is keeping things simple for its streaming website, however, so once you find a movie you want to watch the servers will start loading the torrent behind the scenes and eventually begin playing the title right from within your web browser.
Since the original Popcorn Time team shuttered its service shortly after launching in the midst of legal pressures, according to Gizmodo, the Popcorn Time brand has been helmed by a different group of torrenting enthusiasts who have remained anonymous. After one of the new Popcorn Time domains was seized, the team simply moved its service to another domain and website, continuing the game of cat and mouse with authorities and lawsuits.
Because of the anonymous nature of the Popcorn Time brand, it's unclear exactly who is behind this new streaming service, but whoever it is has been using the Popcorn Time brand while claiming to power its movie streams with two existing services: the movie-download website YTS and cloud-torrenting website Coinado.
Of course, we can't say we recommend the new streaming website as streaming copyrighted material is illegal. And while the downloadable Popcorn Time application features a built-in VPN for covering your tracks (a sort of internet middleman for your computer's IP address), the streaming website doesn't include this feature, making watching movies via this new website a far greater risk.
Regardless of the legal gray zone the Popcorn Time operates in, it's interesting to see the anonymous brand expanding into its own website — just don't expect it to stick around for too long.
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