Despite its popularity the downloading process can be cumbersome at times, especially for novices. Faced with this challenge Sebastian, a designer from Buenos Aires, Argentina, decided to come up with a piece of software that would make the process as easy as Netflix.

“As a designer I love the challenge of simplification. Take something hard for the common user and make it usable. I have a lot of friends who don’t understand torrents and I wanted to make it easy and effortless to use torrent technology,” Sebastian tells us.

A few months of coding later “Popcorn Time” was born, a tool that allows users to stream popular movie torrents with the click of a button. Popcorn Time offers instant access to hundreds of films, in various qualities and complete with subtitles if needed.

What started out as an experiment for a group of friends soon developed into something much bigger. Popcorn Time now has 20 collaborators on Github and continues to expand at a rapid pace. Developers from all over the world have added new features and within 24 hours it was translated into six languages.

Sebastian explains that Popcorn Time uses node-webkit and is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. It’s basically a browser that users HTML, CSS and JavaScript to serve the movie streams.

“The technology behind the app is very simple. We consume a group of APIs, one for the torrents, another for the movie info, and another for the poster. We also have an API for the subtitles. Everything is automated, we don’t host anything, but take existing information and put it together,” Sebastian says

The torrent files all come from YTS (formerly YIFY), which has an API Popcorn Time taps into. The application can search this database and allows users to stream the torrent on demand. When finished the app will continue to share for a while after the download is finished, to avoid leeching.

Since Popcorn Time links to a lot of copyrighted movies, Hollywood is not going to be happy, but according to Sebastian the developers don’t expect any legal issues. They inform users that sharing copyrighted material is not allowed everywhere, and other than that they are just repackaging existing content, without a commercial angle.

“We don’t expect legal issues. We don’t host anything, and none of the developers makes any money. There are no ads, no premium accounts, and no subscription fees or anything like that. It’s an experiment to learn and share,” Sebastian notes.

All the people who work on the project are big movie fans themselves, and most have Netflix accounts. Sebastian believes that going to the cinema is the best way to experience a movie, but if people who want to enjoy a recent film at home they should be able to do so. This is often not the case, and that’s where Popcorn Time comes in.

“We hate that we don’t have the chance to watch some movies at home. Popcorn Time is an experiment to show that you can do something better for the users, and that you can do it with BitTorrent,” Sebastian says.

Popcorn Time is officially still in Beta, and will continue to improve in the weeks and month to come. However, one thing will never change, it will remain free and open source for as long as it exists.

Update: Popcorn Time deleted from Mega after copyright complaint.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

The report, titled “A profile of current and future audiovisual audience”, draws its conclusions based on a survey of 4,608 respondents between the ages of 4 and 50 scattered across Europe. The participants were taken from a representative sample of ten different countries including France, Germany and the UK.

One of the main findings is that up to 97% percent of all Europeans are film viewers, but that the majority don’t pay for the films they watch over the Internet.

“Nearly 70% of Europeans download or stream films for free, whether legally or illegally,” the European Commission reports.

The study does not distinguish between legal and illegal downloads, but half of all respondents said they downloaded or streamed films because cinema tickets and DVDs are too expensive. This suggests that the films they watch come from “pirate” sources.

More than two-third (68%) of film viewers said they downloaded movies without paying, and half of this group did so on a weekly basis. Streaming free movies is slightly less popular with 56% of the total, but it’s still something half of the population has experience with.

Downloading and streaming is most common among Europeans in the 16-25 age group. In addition, there is a small difference between men and women, with the former downloading and streaming slightly more.

One of the main questions is why so many people prefer free copies over paid alternatives. It may come as no surprise that price is an important factor here.

The chart below shows that the price of cinema tickets, video on demand services and DVDs is a key motivation. Half of all people say they prefer free films because the legal alternatives are too expensive.

The fact that some films are not available yet also plays an important role, and is mentioned by 30% of the respondents.

The report also offers some further insight into regional differences in motivations. For example, the high price of legal films is mentioned by only 39% of Romanians, but by 64% of the French.

A lack of legal alternatives is often mentioned as a key motivation in Romania, Croatia and Poland, with around 35% in these countries. In France, the UK and Lithuania, availability was least mentioned with little over 20%.

According to the European Commission these high download and streaming numbers are no surprise, and it suggests that the film industry itself holds the key to lowering high piracy rates.

“The study finds that this is not surprising because, while the public takes a lot of interest in films as a whole, the nearest cinema is often some distance from them and the choice on screen is frequently rather limited,” the European Commission writes.

“It suggests that the European film industry can increase revenues by exploiting different types of profit-making online platforms to increase the availability of films and reach new audiences,” the Commission notes.

While the report signals some key trends, the movie industry is likely to disagree with the conclusion that it’s up to them to make a change.

Instead, Hollywood is likely interpret the findings as an affirmation that pirates are cheapskates out to save money, and therefore tougher anti-piracy measures are required.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

There is no significant change in the total number of movie downloads compared to last year but it’s clear that demand for movies remains strong.

Project X as “winner” is perhaps the biggest surprise as it’s the lowest grossing movie in the top 10 with only $100,931,865.

As is the case every year, our top 10 list has a few notable absentees in 2012. These include the top grossing The Hunger Games and Skyfall. The latter is currently only available in a lower quality release, which explains its absence.

Whether these unauthorized downloads are a serious threat to box office revenues is unclear. Earlier this year researchers found no evidence that BitTorrent piracy hurts US box office returns. There is a link between downloads and revenues internationally, which the researchers attributed to long release windows.

However, looking at box office revenues is only half of the picture as DVD sales, rentals and on-demand movies are perhaps more likely to be impacted.

The data for this list is collected by TorrentFreak from several sources, including reports from all major BitTorrent trackers. All release formats, including cammed versions, that are downloaded between January 1st and mid-December are counted.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

The site can be best described as a movie torrent database with a beautiful design and the ability to create movie watch lists. The site itself doesn’t host any torrents, but lists magnet links instead. At the time of writing, the movies.io database contains 4317 movies and 13,534 magnet links.

When users search for a movie, they get a page with a large backdrop image and movie details such as the plot, genre and rating which is pulled from themoviedb.org. Logged in users also have the option to add movies to their watchlists and share these with others, or collaborate on them.

TorrentFreak got in touch with one of the founders, who we’ll call Jack, to find out more about the project. He told us that a precursor to the current site was actually a gift to his girlfriend.

“The initial motivation is actually kinda cute: my long-distance girlfriend and I love to watch movies together, but come the evening we can never remember which! For her birthday, one of my gifts was the precursor of Movies.io, basic but functional,” Jack told us.

But there was another driving force. Jack and his friends also find the current official options to download movies rather limited or overly complicated.

“Technology should be simple, and serve humanity. Content distribution is hard, not because we don’t have the tech for it, but because of legal concerns. Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal has a hilarious comic on trying to watch Game of Thrones legally: unfortunately, this experience is far from isolated.”

“The internet is of legal drinking age, yet we are stuck with a slew of poorly designed, incompatible, proprietary, flawed, restrictive solutions for watching and downloading multimedia content legally. BitTorrent is fascinating because it takes advantage of the distributed nature of the internet to share content efficiently between thousands of peers.”

Eventually, and after two weeks of coding, Movies.io was born and ready to be shown to the public. According to Jack the site is made by and for movie enthousiasts. A no-nonsense site that is unspoiled by ads, and one that’s intuitive and efficient to use.

“I think the service is unique in the way that it combines an open movie database, a good torrent search engine, and a very pure user interface. We give you a way to discover new movies and make collections of them, that’s it,” Jack told us.

“In a way, our love for movies shows through the design and general experience of the website. Some movies are pieces of art, and they deserve to be treated as such. The content is given a central place, through gorgeous full-screen backdrops, high-resolution covers, and plot. We don’t feature trailers, as they usually spoil a good movie, trying to wow people rather than ease into the ambiance.”

But there’s always the legal side of things. While Movies.io has plenty of legal content on the site, it also links to Hollywood blockbusters. This means that it will be a prime target for the MPAA, who believe that torrent search engines are facilitating content theft.

Jack and his friends are aware of the legal threats they could run into, but believe they have little to worry about.

“We are prepared for them, but then again, there is not much legal ground to stand on for potential takedown requests: we don’t host any copyrighted material on the website. We don’t even store torrent files, we just have magnet links, like The Pirate Bay,” Jack told us.

“The legal demise of Movies.io would be a sad turn of event. That said, as lunatic as they were, the TPB founders had one thing right: sink one ship, ten others will replace it. Content distributors are fighting against a wave bigger than them: in a way, they have already lost.”

According to Jack, content creators should embrace BitTorrent and other novel distribution methods, and they encourage movie makers to get in touch.

“We think there is a win-win scenario possible for content creators on such a platform: see the recent success of Louis CK’s $5 sale. While still too rare, it shows that there is definitely something waiting to happen. TPB has its Promo Bay, and we could very well launch something similar. If you are an independent content creator and would like to discuss your options, don’t hesitate to drop us a mail,” Jack concludes.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Immediately thousands of fans jumped on the release and according to figures collated by TorrentFreak, in the days that followed it was downloaded half a million times. While this may very well be a record for a “CAM” movie, it failed to exceed the download numbers of several other movies that were available in higher quality.

Record or not, the movie’s distributer Disney must have been terrified by this early release. However, this weekend the suits at the studio were able to breathe a sign of relief, or rather, start popping open the Champagne.

With more than $200 million in box office revenue, The Avengers had the most successful first weekend in movie history. It broke the record set by Harry Potter last year by more than $30 million, despite the “massive” piracy.

But is this really such a big surprise? Not when you look at the numbers.

Of all the people who downloaded a pirate copy of the film about 20% came from the US. This means that roughly 100,000 Americans have downloaded a copy online through BitTorrent. Now, IF all these people bought a movie ticket instead then box office revenue would be just 0.5% higher.

Not much of an impact, and even less when you consider that these “pirates” do not all count as a lost sale.

We don’t think that there are many movie fans who see a low quality camcorded version of a movie as a true alternative to watching a film in a movie theater. The two are totally different experiences, and not direct competition at all.

If anything, downloading a camcorded movie could be compared to downloading a low quality bootleg of a concert. People who download these are collectors, passionate fans, or just curious. But in no way do these bootlegs seriously hurt concert attendances.

The same might be said for advance leaks of games. These pre-release copies are often downloaded by tens of thousands of people, but not necessarily those who refuse to pay. The people who download these buggy and sometimes hardly playable games are often curious game fanatics who tend to buy the official game when it comes out.

The claim that camcorded films are killing the movie industry is nonsense and spending millions of dollars on anti-camcording technologies is simply not worth it.

But does this mean that piracy is not an issue for the movie industry at all? Well not so fast.

A recent study showed that the US box office is not suffering from movie piracy, but that there is a detrimental effect on international box office figures. The researchers attribute this impact to the wide release gaps, which sometimes result in a high quality DVD copy being available on pirate sites while a movie is still showing in theaters.

These high quality copies are more likely to “compete” with movie theater attendance and if a movie is not showing in local theaters at all, it definitely has the potential to impact future attendance.

This is even more true for the DVD-aftermarket and VOD sales. High quality pirated copies are direct competition and can impact revenues.

The challenge for the movie industry is to make legal offerings more appealing than pirated counterparts. Of course it may not always be able to compete with “free,” but there is still a lot of ground to make up when it comes to availability and quality of legal offerings.

But in no way are camcorded copies killing the US movie industry.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

For nearly half a decade we have compiled weekly and yearly lists of the most popular downloads, and following on from Netflix’s publication of the most rented movies of all time, we today present the equivalent for BitTorrent downloads.

With an estimated 21 million downloads, Avatar is the most pirated movie of all time, followed by The Dark Knight and Transformers with about 19 million downloads each. Interestingly enough, none of the above films were present in Netflix’s list.

The BitTorrent and Netflix lists do show some overlap, as Inception and The Departed make an appearance in both.

Despite the massive piracy, the films below have not done too shabbily at the box-office. Avatar is the best grossing movie of all time and The Dark Knight is third, right before Star Trek.

—

The list below is based on statistics is gathered from public BitTorrent trackers, dating back to early 2006. As BitTorrent’s usage was only a fraction of what it is today in the years before, we expect the list below to cover all the most downloaded movies on BitTorrent.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

The data is collected by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only.

RSS feed for the weekly DVDrip chart.

As of July 28, 2008…

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

The origin of these movies is not clear, but it is probable that they’ve been downloaded via p2p at some point, either on these systems, or on the personal systems of officers and transferred over.

Senior officials of the SA police force have been made aware of the findings, including its commissioner Mel Hyde. However, police sources have told press that there will not be any investigation into this, citing the large numbers of police officers involved.

The Australian Federation against Copyright Theft (AFACT) has said it will write to the commissioner to seek an explanation, presumably as to why the police officers are being let off with what it considers a heinous crime. Quite ironically, AFACT boasts of “working closely with police” – perhaps this closeness has shown the police officers involved just how unimportant and meaningless this so-called ‘crime’ is in the grand scheme of things.

If the officers do go unpunished, it could create a favorable precedent for filesharers in South Australia. If police officers, who are expected to be held to a greater level of accountability regarding the law, show this level of contempt for the current copyright laws, are unpunished, it will make it harder to convince a court that regular citizen should be punished for similar acts.

On the other hand, if the officers are punished under the law, which allows for upto AUS$60,500 (About US$55,700 or 35,500Euro) per infringement and up to 5 years imprisonment, the ability to effectively police the state will be severely diminished.

Either way, this case will bring to a head the vastly disproportionate penalties for an act that, as yet, has never been proven to be even financially damaging. One thing is certain, when even the police officers join large numbers of citizens in flouting such laws, the law’s place in society should be called into serious question.

The South Australian police force had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

RSS feed for the weekly DVDrip chart.

As of March 18, 2007…

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

RSS feed for the weekly DVDrip chart.

As of March 5, 2007…

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.