Hollywood independent producers are tracking down and suing users of Popcorn Time.
Popcorn Time, the free version of Netflix, allows for people the ability to play movies through torrents with one click. The interface of the app looks similar to Netflix and allows for easy navigation and use of the program.
The program has gained popularity around the world, where movie restrictions have put serious limits in the amount of available content. This popularity ended up causing the app to be shut down by the original creators. However, the program is back online and Hollywood is stepping up.
Popcorn Time lawyers have filtered through copyright infringement cases and laws, they argue that it is essentially a legal program since, users of the program are not actually downloading movies but instead are, streaming them to their computer. Although it provided access to pirated content, Popcorn Time claimed that it did not violate any laws.
“As a designer I love the challenge of simplification. Take something hard for the common user and make it usable. I have a lot of friends who don't understand torrents and I wanted to make it easy and effortless to use torrent technology,” one of the app's designers said in .
But, in a recent lawsuit against users of Popcorn Time, the latest technology in piracy may be shutting down.
The producers of Survivor has sued 16 people who used the torrent software Popcorn Time for pirating the title. Independent Hollywood companies are aggressively trying to stop online copyright infringement
From Variety:
Nu Image and Millennium Films, the company behind “Survivor,” identified the users by their IP addresses and are seeking their true identities via subpoenas to Internet service providers. Nu Image and Millennium say that the movie has been downloaded illegally “hundreds of thousands of times and counting,” including more than 10,000 times in Oregon, where the lawsuit was filed.
They said that they are seeking to resolve cases for $750 each in damages, even though infringement carries a maximum of $150,000 in each instance.
In their lawsuit the producers identify Popcorn Time as “software that is specifically designed for committing theft,” and say that users accept a terms of service agreement that includes a provision warning that “by watching a movie with this application you might be committing copyright violations.”
“Popcorn Time makes it clear through its terms of service that its users are willfully committing copyright infringement and gives them a clear option to opt out before engaging in criminal activity,” said Avi Lerner, chairman and founder of Nu Image. “It's time that we hold people responsible for their action.”
This is not the first time Hollywood has put pressure on piracy. After a leaked version of Expendables 3 hit the Internet, Hollywood created the Internet Security Task Force, which features independent producers. The members of the Task Force have sued people who have downloaded Dallas Buyers Club and The Hurt Locker in a mission to stop illegal piracy.
