Popcorn Time was developed 'in a couple of weeks' by a group from Buenos Aires, Argentina, who elected 'Pochoclín' (derived from pochoclo, which means popcorn in Buenos Aires parlance) as their mascot. It continues to make the downloaded content available to others until the movie is deleted, which is normally done automatically once the application is closed. As with other BitTorrent clients, as soon as Popcorn Time starts to download a film, it also starts to share the downloaded content with other users (in technical terms, it seeds the torrent to others in the BitTorrent swarm). When a user clicks on one of the titles, the film is downloaded via the BitTorrent protocol. This list of media can be searched and browsed by genres or categories. The Popcorn Time interface presents thumbnails and film titles in a manner similar to Netflix. On January 5, 2022, a popular copy of Popcorn Time was shut down due to 'a lack of use'. The iOS version of Popcorn Time is no longer maintained. In September 2014, Time4Popcorn became available on jailbroken Apple devices, and eventually non-jailbroken iOS devices via a Windows installation tool.

Time4Popcorn reportedly gained millions of users within four months of launching in 2014 and became the first fork to bring Popcorn Time to Android devices.

Since then, the program has been forked several times with several other development teams such as Time4Popcorn and the Butter Project to maintain the program and produce new features. After this increase in popularity, the program was abruptly taken down by its original developers on March 14, 2014, due to pressure from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). The legality of the software depends on the jurisdiction.įollowing its creation, Popcorn Time quickly received positive media attention, with some comparing the app to Netflix for its ease of use. Popcorn Time uses sequential downloading to stream video listed by several torrent websites, and third-party trackers can also be added manually. The application provides a piracy-based alternative to subscription-based video streaming services such as Netflix. Popcorn Time is a multi-platform, free software BitTorrent client that includes an integrated media player. Comparison of Internet Relay Chat clients.Popcorntime.app at the Wayback Machine (archived April 2, 2021)

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