Popcorn Time is back: Alternative download rises from the ashes

The service often described as 'Netflix for free' refuses to die

The digital game of whack-a-mole continues, as Popcorn Time is back up and streaming a stunningly vast library of TV shows and movies, many of which haven’t even left cinemas left.

After a long run, popcorntime.io was eventually shut down by the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) a couple of months back, but at the time of writing it is available again at popcorn-time.se and popcorn time.ml.

And therein lies the problem for rights holders - because the software is open source, anyway can bring it back to life and redistribute it elsewhere online.

Last time around, “2 guys who were caught by Brein (Protection Rights Entertainment Industry Netherland),” a Reddit user claimed. “They had to delete all their accounts, links and stop working on the community version immediately.

“This will not stop us in any way, but we will not credit any of the people involved to protect them. We have replaced some of the links including working installers with the fix already applied for Windows/Mac/Linux.”

According to Softpedia, the latest community to pick up the Popcorn Time banner are working on a decentralised way of maintaining the application, keeping its developers’ identities secret.

As long as there are more developers out there with too much time on their hands than there are staff at copyright associations, it looks as though iterations of the BitTorrent client will just keep popping back up.