back to article Tens of thousands of Popcorn Time movie streamers menaced by anti-piracy fleet

A pro-copyright lobbying group is threatening to sue some 50,000 to 75,000 people in Norway for using Popcorn Time movie-streaming apps. Norway's national broadcaster NRK reports that Rights Alliance has collected records on tens of thousands of people who allegedly used Popcorn Time to pipe pirated flicks over the internet. …

  1. James O'Shea

    Surely suing them is excessive

    "In the US, a film studio filed suit earlier this month against 11 people who were accused of illegally using the service to access the Adam Sandler film The Cobbler. "

    I mean... isn't watching an Adam Sandler film, especially if you're not being paid to do it, sufficient punishment all by itself?

    1. Salts

      Re: Surely suing them is excessive

      To true, I also wonder in 50-75k how many false positives they have lets go low, say 1% that gives 500-750 users and once they discredit the data, then the whole thing is discredited. Seem to remember a British firm taking the carpet bombing approach a while back and it end well, very well, IMHO! Phishing trip should be illegal.

  2. NanoMeter
    Coat

    Britney moment

    Leave the Popcorn Time pirates alone!

    1. MacGyver

      Re: Britney moment

      My argument would be "Says who?"

      I mean really, what's their evidence, a screenshot of some IPs or an Excel doc with IP's and time-stamps? That's swell, I can make all those up with Notepad and Paint.exe, where can I send my extortion list to? I mean were these IPs documented by some sort of bonded official agency or Larry the tech guy in their basement? Why does their allegation have any more weight than the denial? "Describe how the non-password protected write-enabled xls document was emailed from person to person again."

      Look ma, I made a list too:

      192.168.0.x - 15:30:04.5 - downloaded Avengers VII (2023).mp4

      Now who do I send it to? This "suing for things based on documents originating from my organization" sounds like a money making dream.

      1. Fatman
        Joke

        Re: Britney moment

        <quote>Now who do I send it to? This "suing for things based on documents originating from my organization" sounds like a lawyers money making wet dream.</quote>

        FTFY!!!

        Fine examples:

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACS:Law

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prenda_Law

  3. Steve 129

    Contact them for a refund !??

    "In the US, a film studio filed suit earlier this month against 11 people who were accused of illegally using the service to access the Adam Sandler film The Cobbler."

    Were the film company contacting them to issue a refund for the time spent downloading/watching it?

    11 people. More than paid for it I expect :)

  4. Efros

    Adam Sandler

    getting fined for that ain't worth it. Always a faint whiff (OK overwhelming stench) of shitness surrounding his work.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Are they saying that there are current US films and TV worth watching? My experience says the opposite.

  6. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    What are they being (attempted) sued for?

    What are they being sued for? Maybe Norway has one of those "streaming is illegal" laws but US does not.

    Bittorrent opens one up to potential problems because you're bittorrent client is actually uploading fragments of whatever file to others, if the file is copyrighted it's deemed your bittorrent client is committing copyright infringement on your behalf. In the US, streaming is 100% legal, the company doing the streaming is committing copyright infringement, the person viewing the stream is not (unless you're using downloadhelper -- naughty naughty!)

    There's no 'Oh, but there's a temporary copy in the computer's RAM' type situation either -- this got hashed out with DVDs already in the US. Some weisenheimer (probably Motion Picture Ass. of America but I don't recall) tried to argue the like 8MB buffer in (unauthorized) DVD playback software was an unauthorized copy. They were told to take a hike because a) This is not some superfluous buffer, it's required for playback. b) The buffer is in volatile storage (in other words, it's in RAM... probably a temp file would be covered too.. writing out an .avi or .flv into Downloads would not be covered.)

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: What are they being (attempted) sued for?

      To answer your question:

      Popcorn-Time presents torrents with a streaming-style UI. Whilst you are watching content on PopcornTime, you become a Torrent peer, uploading. Indeed, you can even drang n drop a torrent file from a website into PopcornTiime and it will play, after buffering.

      PopornTime.io says they send you through a Proxy; Popcorntime.se does not, and in addition it sends your CPU cycles skywards. Wired.com being what it is advertised the latter. Go figure.

      1. Dave 126 Silver badge

        Re: What are they being (attempted) sued for?

        Rule 92 of the internet: Wired.com are clueless.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: What are they being (attempted) sued for?

      In the Windows and the Linux versions, the entire file being streamed from is downloaded to the hard drive, not just to a small buffer in volatile memory. When you close the selection, then the file is erased.

      Prior to closing the selection, you can copy the file from its temporary location.

      In short, Popcorn Time is a BitTorrent client for non-geeks.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Cell Block H

    6532E: What're you in for?

    8765G: Watching an Adam Sandler film

    6532E: Guards! Gaurds! I want to move cells!

  8. Uncle Slacky Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    The Motion Picture Ass. of America

    I see what you did there...

    1. Fatman
      Joke

      Re: The Motion Picture Ass. of America

      Yet, perfectly descriptive.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The proper penalty for watching a downloaded movie

    Should be the amount of money received by the studio from 1 ticket sale (if the movie is in cinemas) or 1 rental. This would obviously be a fraction of the retail cost.

    Maybe the studios should just bit the bullet and open an online tip jar. "Watched a pirated movie? Pay what you think it was worth."

    People would still want to claim refunds for Sandler movies, but that's like expecting a garden centre to hand out free mouthwash after you've chowed down on a bag of manure.

    1. Velv
      Go

      Re: The proper penalty for watching a downloaded movie

      There are services out there that provide a buy to watch facility on a per item basis. They aren't good value.

      Pay what you think is fair? Sadly doesn't work as most people just don't bother to pay. Perhaps you should get the first 90% of a film free then need to pay if you want to see the end?

      There's got to be a sustainable model out there somewhere, it's just finding it an embracing it...

  10. casaloco

    This is going to be funny

    The first time someone contests the claims and wins, the Anti-Piracy group will be sued for infinite money for slander and making false accusations.

  11. Martin Maloney
    Linux

    Don't slight the penguin

    "The open-source software is available for Android and iOS gadgets, plus a desktop app for Windows and OS X machines..."

    It's also available for Linux.

  12. Roger Varley

    Strange choice of words?

    "The group said it could begin sending out letters to alleged pirates this Fall."

    Is "Fall" a common euphemism in Norway for "Autumn", or is the group run by Americans perchance?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Is "Fall" a common euphemism in Norway for "Autumn"

      Is "Fall" a common euphemism in Norway for "Høsten"

      FTFY

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