Popcorn Time News: Movie Piracy Site Back Online and Defiant After October Shutdown

By Lorraine Caballero, Christian Post Contributor Thursday, November 19, 2015

Movie piracy website Popcorn Time has re-launched just a month after it announced it would stop its operations immediately.

In a move that defied copyright group's efforts to put a stop to piracy, Popcorn Time re-launched a new version of its site just a month after it ceased the operation of its PopcornTime.io site. It was later revealed that the company shut down the site because of legal and internal financial issues, according to the International Business Times (IBT).

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) had been pushing for the shutdown of Popcorn Time. After the cessation of its operations in October, its virtual private network VPN.ht Movies announced that the movie download service will be resurrected, the report details.

However, the revived website will not feature movies from YIFY/YTS, another now-defunct website of Popcorn Time. VPN.ht Movies will tap a list of movies and TV shows using a customized Application Program Interface (API). Before downloading VPN.ht Movies, users are instructed to uninstall existing versions of Popcorn Time.

"I am considering a full comeback, I just do not want to release a half working version," IBT quotes Popcorn Time developer Wally's statement to TorrentFreak. "The popularity of Popcorn Time should be an example for the MPAA to build a future streaming platform that will be open to the entire world."

Meanwhile, the makers of the movie "The Cobbler," which stars Adam Sandler, have received court permission to interrogate suspected Popcorn Time users. The filmmakers are on a quest to uncover the real identities of movie pirates, TorrentFreak reports.

This summer, makers of "The Cobbler" filed lawsuits against Popcorn Time users and Comcast clients who allegedly used their Internet connections to infringe on the movie's copyright. The filmmakers have requested depositions of the subscribers to see if they can help the company look for the real movie pirates.

While they were able to settle with five identified Popcorn Time users, the movie studio said four Comcast subscribers have ignored their request.