Popcorn Time Is Back

Behold the power of open-source software. After the untimely death of the original Popcorn Time, a so-called Netflix for pirated content, the project was forked several times on GitHub. And guess what? It’s back and more shady than ever before.

The torrent site YTS has taken over the project, reports TorrentFreak.

YTS developer Jduncanator told TorrentFreak that they are in a better position from a copyright standpoint because it’s built on their API. “It’s as if we have built another interface to our website. We are no worse off managing the project than we would be just supplying the movies. It’s our vision at YTS that we see through projects like these and that just because they create a little stir in the public, it doesn’t mean they are shut down.”

The installer and project files are available on GitHub or right here. The new version works just like the previous one. It’s available for Windows, OS X and Linux.

As the release notes say, the new version, build 0.2.7, now uses trakt.tv to pull in additional movie metadata meaning it now has cover images, backdrop images, Synopsis’s and runtime data. The project is being headed up by a developer that has worked on several public builds before, lending a bit of credence to this new build.

All the files for the original Popcorn Time were available from the start on GitHub. Anyone could access and build out their own version. After the original shut down, a new group of developers backed by YTS picked up the ball and ran with it. It seems in this case the sequel is more interesting than the original.