A few months after having resurfaced, Popcorn Time is scuttled again, at least its “official” version. In fact, this is free software that should somehow survive if you know where to look.
If you are a fan of illegal content streaming platforms, Popcorn Time is probably a name that is familiar to you. In the viewfinder in particular of Netflix, this application gave free access to a rich catalog of films and series. It had already been closed in 2015 following pressure from the American film industry, but was able to rise from its ashes through multiple forks, before the original team took up the torch in the spring of 2021.
But this renaissance has apparently fizzled out. In an email to Bloomberg agency, the team behind Popcorn Time announced its final closure, without giving further details. It is likely that the increasingly virulent campaigns to dismantle pirate networks have ended up bearing fruit, to the benefit of rights holders. The service home page now displays a sad “RIP”.
The code for Popcorn Time is still on GitHub
This is the end of the adventure, at least for the official version of the software. The code of the latter is indeed still in free access on GitHub, and this is what had always guaranteed its survival until then. On the r / PopCornTimeApp Subreddit, several Internet users indicate that they are able to continue using the tool, via a URL other than that of the site and most often using a virtual private network (VPN).