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Attackers can use video subtitles to hijack your devices
Be careful before you fire up media player software to play that foreign-language movie -- it might be a way for intruders to compromise your system. Check Point researchers have discovered an exploit that uses maliciously crafted subtitles to take control of your device, whether it's a PC, phone or smart TV. It's not picky about the program, either -- the researchers demonstrated the flaw in Kodi, PopcornTime, Stremio and VLC. The technique isn't particularly complicated, and relies on a tendency by developers to assume that subtitles are little more than innocuous text files.
The Pirate Bay begins testing browser streaming
The Pirate Bay torrent site has blown around so much, you might not even be sure where it is right now (thepiratebay.se, we think). It's still kicking though, and now has a new trick -- streaming directly from your browser. It's able to do that thanks to a new plugin from Torrents Time, using the same technology as Popcorn Time (the second version, not the original). If you dare, all you have to do is download the plugin for Firefox, Internet Explorer or Chrome, and when you go to a given Pirate Bay torrent, you'll get the option to stream.
MPAA filed lawsuits in Canada and NZ to shut down movie pirates
The MPAA can and will hunt pirates down wherever they are, it seems. According to TorrentFreak, the association sued three popcorntime.io developers in Canada earlier in October, accusing them of "various copyright infringing acts." Since then, it has successfully obtained an injunction, which ordered the website's shutdown. If you've never heard of the service before, it's a website that streams pirated movies, which even works with Chromecasts and AirPlay-enabled devices. It's not the only Popcorn Time version available on the internet, but it's the most popular fork of the original app that also shuttered because of the MPAA back in 2014.
Popcorn Time creator reveals himself (and why he left)
Up until the original Popcorn Time 'died' and became an open source project, its chief creator was only known as "Sebastian" -- not surprisingly, he wasn't keen on linking his real name to a pro-piracy initiative. At last, though, this mysterious man has revealed both his identity and his motivations. He's Federico Abad, an Argentinian designer who created Popcorn Time when he wanted a fast and simple way for people to watch any movie they wanted. Existing options took too long, or were confusing to a relative neophyte like Abad's mom. If she liked the technology, it was a good idea.
Hollywood studios begin suing Popcorn Time users
Popcorn Time may have won an army of fans with its "Netflix for Torrenting" service, but its rapid rise in popularity has also caught the attention of Hollywood and its legal teams. The Wall Street Journal reports that the studio behind The Expendables movies is suing 16 users of the Popcorn Time service, after they were allegedly found to have illegally downloaded and shared copies of straight-to-DVD Pierce Brosnan film Survivor.
Danish police arrest two for running Popcorn Time guide sites
Danish law enforcement officers have reportedly arrested a pair of men for running two websites tangentially related to Popcorn Time, an outlaw site billed as the "Netflix for Torrenting." Not only that, the police have also shut down both Popcorntime.dk and Popcorn-time.dk, and seized the domains. Each man faces a maximum jail term of six years for his involvement.
There's now a Popcorn Time clone for porn
Using Bittorrent to pirate brand-new movies and TV is nothing new, but Popcorn Time's genius was to wrap the activity in an easy-to-use, Netflix-esque bundle. Naturally, it was only a matter of time before someone used the system's freely available technology to build the exact same system, but, you know, for porn. The unimaginatively named Porn Time does exactly what you think it does, letting you pull down high-resolution grot and push them to your TV via a Chromecast or Airplay device. We would test it, but a) this is an AOL-owned computer and we don't want to be fired, and b) the creators should have, surely, called it PopPorn Time. Right? [Image Credit: Getty]
Popcorn Time-like pirate movie streaming comes to the web (update: poof)
Popcorn Time's less-than-legit movie streaming has been available on lots of devices, but the web? Not so much. However, some enterprising developers have seen fit to make that happen in an unofficial capacity. Meet Popcorn in Your Browser, a simple torrent-based video service you can use in any web browser. As with above-board subscription services like Netflix, all you do is search for the title you want and start watching.
Movie streaming service Popcorn Time blocked by UK court
Popcorn Time has painted a rather large target on its back with its movie-streaming service. Due to its questionable legality, movie studios have sought to block the service, but a shift to Bittorrent-based distribution has allowed it to continue operating while Hollywood scrambles a response. One place the studios have been able to deal a blow, however, is in the UK, where they've managed to restrict access to the original Popcorn Time client.
Popcorn Time's movie piracy app works on iOS without tricks, for now
Popcorn Time's piracy-centric streaming video service just got a little too easy to access on the go. The outfit has released an installer that lets you use the peer-to-peer app on iOS devices without jailbreaking (that is, loosening restrictions though unofficial code). All you do is run an app on your Windows PC (a Mac version is due soon) and start watching. Does this sound like something Apple wouldn't approve? You're probably right. Popcorn Time tells The Next Web that it fully expects the folks in Cupertino to block the software, and that its installer team is "ready for any obstacle" -- the crew went so far as to post a 1-year anniversary video (below) that thumbs its nose at, well, everyone. Something tells us that this confidence won't stop Apple from trying, though, so don't be surprised if the app stops working before long.
Movie piracy app Popcorn Time thinks it can thwart a shutdown
About a year after Popcorn Time's death and resurrection show, comes news that the app is taking even more of the legwork out of watching pirated movies online. To further stretch the meaning of "legal," the service is moving to a peer-to-peer streaming system so that its userbase (which is apparently growing by 100,000 downloads per day) hosts the requisite data, according to Wired. "Making all our data available via P2P will mean that Popcorn Time will no longer rely on domains and centralized servers, but only on its user base," an anonymous software engineer said. "After everything we went through, this will be our sweetest revenge and our biggest victory." So there's that.
