No More Popcorn For Them
A report by the Wall Street Journal has indicated the the studio behind “The Expendables” movie has started action against 16 Popcorn Time users in an anti-piracy case, after allegedly tracing the users downloaded and shared copies of “Survivor” starting Pierce Brosnan.
Popcorn Time sky-rocketed in popularity as the Netflix torrent alternative, with an unlimited catalogue and ease-of-use, the consumers found everything they wanted in one place. The only downside, as there always will be, is the use of piracy to make it all possible. Since its inception, Hollywood has been looking for ways to thwart the growth of their user base and previous cases of Studios suing individuals had already begun earlier in August, as reported by Torrent Freak. Also reported at TF, Denmark police arrested two webmasters running Popcorn Time guide sites, starting controversy on whether or not they even did anything illegal by posting information about the service.
A Studio On a Mission
This latest case filed in Oregon by a studio representing Millennium Films was made possible by tracing and tracking the users by IP address. It has not requested that the ISPs release the subscriber information in order to positively identify the accused. As unreal as this sounds, copyright trolls are taking on the small people in order to try and scare off new and current users from continuing to use the free service. We are much more inclined to agree with proper approaches to the problem, such as the UK court ruling in May, forcing ISPs to block access to the Popcorn Time website.
It is no secret that it becomes easier to trace users when using Peer-2-Peer torrent networks, and in the same way it also makes it much harder for authorities to stop it all together. These cases risk to continue to grow in numbers as copyright lawyers continue to trace and go after insignificant users of the service, but it will do nothing to actually eliminate the software or its capability to stream and share video at ease. In the meantime, Popcorn Time users are highly advised to start using a VPN if they have not already, effectively encrypting their data from ISPs and routing traffic through masked IPs, stopping others from tracing their real identification and location.
