Popcorn Time: Hollywood's Worst Nightmare Is Only Just Beginning

Imagine for a moment if Napster were cloned hundreds of times. If there were a NapsterStanford, a NapsterMIT, or a Napster for your high school completely independent from, yet just as powerful as, the original. Imagine what would have happened if Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker had released the source code, allowing any developer to essentially copy and build upon his software. Imagine if Napster were open source.

The RIAA would have fought a war on a thousand fronts. And lost.

Video piracy is on the verge of having its Napster moment. A piece of software appeared last week called Popcorn Time. It makes watching pirated movies as easy as firing up Netflix. Everything is free. There’s no mess or fuss — you press play.

Popcorn Time makes it as easy to watch pirated content as Napster did to download songs. It’s a nightmare for Hollywood.

Popcorn Time has already forked. After an early scare, the old developers ceded to a new team because the pressure and attention was simply too much. The program is just that good.

Streaming is the future of both piracy and legitimate distribution. If Popcorn Time implodes again, another program will be built on top of the rubble and stand even taller than the first. The only thing that can slow its growth is Hollywood’s full embrace of the stream and, judging by the popularity of pirate services, it had better come soon.

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When taking a look at this, this is like Youtube, but working via torrents and letting one stream different HD-movies immediately, adding subtitles to them. The developers got scared off at first and went out, but the source code was opened for the public and well, by now it is in different languages all over the internet and well, personally I highly doubt it is something that Hollywood can stop.

When considering what impact Napster had on music industry, I believe this will have similar if not stronger effect on movie industries, which means it is very likely the prices of movies would go down soon.

Considering the policies of different movie companies, I hope this would some effect on those. Many here come from US or some other big country. These are the focus points of the companies, although the smaller or poorer nations are often the ones who have problems with such policies.

- The prices are inflated so high, that only very big channels with a large audience are able to buy the latest content in fast enough. A channel with a smaller target group has to wait a few years until the prices go down enough. Prices should be set according to nations and their average salaries, not one price for all which only the largest channels are able to buy in. At the end it is just a content, something already created and I believe personalising the fees based on nations would earn significantly more for the companies than selling the stuff years later when the movie is not popular anymore or the series was premiered years ago.

-The DVD prices in larger/richer nations are generally significantly lower than in smaller nations due to larger market - you can earn from revenue. For the latest DVD here for example people would have to pay around 30-50 dollars. A lot for watching the movie once/twice, especially considering that the average salary is times below US one. The laws are more complex and with addition to getting by all the legal fees, the market is so small the prices have to be set so that the distributors earn from the higher costs, not revenue. Also it often takes more time for DVD to reach these markets.

-The regional policies often create a situation, where people in certain areas have no access to content. For example the most popular internet streams, like Netflix or Lovefilm, are not available for people from many areas. And well, even these sites, do not have access to all content.

I am not pro-piracy per se, although I understand the reasons behind high piracy levels in certain countries and regions, usually it is the fault of bad policies by the companies hitting them back. If you do not create same options for people around the globe, somebody will find a way to step by the policies and create something like the Popcorn Time.

With the globalisation, I hope sooner or later, companies would realise that something needs to change. I hope that this could have some effect on the industry. Maybe some day there would be some global legal site, forgetting all the regional things and everybody has access to the latest content for a reasonable cost (also the salaries of different nations should be counted in). I would have nothing against paying 5-10 dollars a month to see any movie, any series, anything that is not in the cinemas anymore and has premiered already in TV channels.

Honestly, with the ability to get almost anything you want off the web, it would be wise for Hollywood to start streaming their content for free and sell advertising spots during the stream. I'd bet that would be much more profitable and no more need to spend the money to fight piracy.

Better hold your wad when it comes to illegal content for now. My buddy just had Comcast shut off his internet..... Now he has to run everything off his phones hotspot....

Avatar, One of the best remakes of all time (You know, the one with the blue people), made something like 2.7 billion dollars on that movie. The highest grossing movie of all time. I saw it in theaters, and in 3D.

I don't feel bad downloading a copy or watching it for free on the internet somewhere. How much money did they lose due to piracy?? And does it really matter with those kind of numbers? Who knows. If they eliminated piracy i think movies and tv shows would get a whole lot crappier.

PS: Things like netflix are the future, start streaming and selling ad time or something hollywood. Dont fight it like the RIAA and lose millions.

The biggest sources of piracy is in some overseas locations. Places like China and India copy movies and sell in their countries and other countries I've been to like Saudi and UAE. Korea had it's own bootleg going on too. With piracy in other countries where they can't stop it they should leave Americans alone--there is much less piracy going on here.

I know piracy is wrong, but I also like to support things that unlock monopolistic corporate holds on various industries. The music industry got rocked by Napster and all the programs that followed it, it's time for Hollywood to feel this same punishment. The only problem I see with this is that as piracy starts to cut into Hollywood's profits, they will take less and less risks and rely on the guaranteed moneymaker movies.

sheepslayer247
Honestly, with the ability to get almost anything you want off the web, it would be wise for Hollywood to start streaming their content for free and sell advertising spots during the stream. I'd bet that would be much more profitable and no more need to spend the money to fight piracy.

The smart future media companies will sell advertising during the media. For example, you sell to Coke and then every beverage someone drinks will be of that brand.

This is already done quite a bit, and they are already thriving on this revenue. Their best bet is to fully embrace/develop the concept behind this kind of marketing. Then you ahve people being tricked into paying for entertainment that is nothing but a giant commercial. Kind of sucks, to be honest....and not sure it is any better than what we have today.

The "commercial" concept is a bad idea. People tend to get up and walk away from them, or fast forward through them. I like watching series on Netflix because I can avoid them altogether. Whoever comes up with a way to provide a lower cost content (or maybe even free content) of a solid quality, without interruptions or poor delivery, will end up the richest person in the history of the world.

sheepslayer247
Honestly, with the ability to get almost anything you want off the web, it would be wise for Hollywood to start streaming their content for free and sell advertising spots during the stream. I'd bet that would be much more profitable and no more need to spend the money to fight piracy.

Can't , they need to make more money year after year for the stock holders and investors. I have no problem with that , where I have a problem is that they have direct access to our politicians and manipulate the market and laws solely for their benefit.

The undoing of net neutrality will be their new weapon against piracy. Any web site thought to have illegal content will be put into the slow bandwidth . Cant stream or download a good quality movie via dialup speed.

Krazysh0t
I know piracy is wrong, but I also like to support things that unlock monopolistic corporate holds on various industries. The music industry got rocked by Napster and all the programs that followed it, it's time for Hollywood to feel this same punishment. The only problem I see with this is that as piracy starts to cut into Hollywood's profits, they will take less and less risks and rely on the guaranteed moneymaker movies.

Hell no piracy isn't wrong. I am inundated all day long with pop cultural things like music, billboards, movie references, etc, etc. They have used various psychological ploys for years to create deeper and deeper levels of engagement among the populace. They wanted to enmesh themselves with the day to day life of society. So now it goes both ways. I am a part of this society, and my inability to access content that is relevant to our society would not be proper.

Now, if media were to back it off a little. Maybe give me some of my landscape back, and remove all their advertisements, I could be convinced to change my views. But as it stands, I assert that you cannot copyright a Nike Swoosh symbol when you have made it a regular part of the environment. If i want to paint a portrait of the view out my window, how do i deal with the billboard that has the giant Nike logo on it? And if i sell that portrait i painted, of the natural landscape out of my window (as artists have done for centuries)...do i have to give some of that money to Nike? Why? They are the ones who imposed on the view out of my window.

The one thing I fear about programs like this, is that it has the potential to become a hemorrhage of gasoline on the fire for CISPA/SOPA type legislation to be rammed down our throats.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


Product placement is doing quite well these days, isn't it? It generates revenue and the viewer, although they may not notice, is being pushed towards a certain product.

I wouldn't put commercials in to the streams, but I would run "banners". Throughout the movie, they could run small banners that advertises for Coke or whomever pays for that ad. There are no commercials to walk away from and you are still holding the attention of the viewer.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


At the movie theater the can make money off tickets, food, AND they still show commercials and previews (commercials for movies).

It's a racket.

I am always astounded at the number of you who think it is your right to have any digital content you want for free.

Piracy is theft. Period. You can say "everyone is doing it" or "movies are too expensive" or "they made enough money so why do they need mine" all day long, but you are still a thief.

GeorgiaGirl
I am always astounded at the number of you who think it is your right to have any digital content you want for free.

Piracy is theft. Period. You can say "everyone is doing it" or "movies are too expensive" or "they made enough money so why do they need mine" all day long, but you are still a thief.

No its not. Theft and stealing require the original is taken we are dealing with infinite copies. I can't wait till science invents a replicator like from star trek and we start coping food. The food corps will try and say its illegal to use as its piracy to make copies of hamburgers.

Soulhacking

GeorgiaGirl
I am always astounded at the number of you who think it is your right to have any digital content you want for free.

Piracy is theft. Period. You can say "everyone is doing it" or "movies are too expensive" or "they made enough money so why do they need mine" all day long, but you are still a thief.

No its not. Theft and stealing require the original is taken we are dealing with infinite copies. I can't wait till science invents a replicator like from star trek and we start coping food. The food corps will try and say its illegal to use as its piracy to make copies of hamburgers.

Um, no, your definition of theft and stealing is wrong. Theft is taking something that doesn't belong to you.

But, hey--whatever helps you live with yourself, right???

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan

Whoever comes up with a way to provide a lower cost content (or maybe even free content) of a solid quality, without interruptions or poor delivery, will end up the richest person in the history of the world.

I'd vote for something like 'a dollar per view, deducted from your Paypal account' or something like that. It would be relatively painless for almost everybody and they'd still make money on it.

I haven't been able to go to a movie theater in years; the last several times they blasted out my eardrums and I refuse to let them damage my hearing with all their idiotic fake crashing and explosion noises. Lousy writing = big booms all the time.

I'd advocate for more material like West Wing, but there's only so many actual intelligent writers out there. Most of them are hacks, and Hollywood deserves to go down if it can't adapt and create worthy content.

Soulhacking
No its not. Theft and stealing require the original is taken we are dealing with infinite copies. I can't wait till science invents a replicator like from star trek and we start coping food. The food corps will try and say its illegal to use as its piracy to make copies of hamburgers.

It's not a copy that you are stealing it's intellectual property. Until the laws change you are dead wrong. People are payed for their knowledge. How do you think that is? Intelligence and creativity ARE commodities. I do for see a time when intellectual property won't be owned by the creator, but it's around the time money stops being used.

You seem to be missing the idea of what Copy Right means. No one owns the rights to hamburgers. Your example is absurd on just that ground.

Give me your Journals and facebook password. Give me all your online data and your bank account. It's all just copies of real info so therefor I am not stealing it. You sound like the NSA more than anything else. What's you SS number? I just want to copy it..

Public domain will be a hot issue as time moves on. Given this posters logic anyone can copy film from security cameras and use it to their own ends, because it's not stealing now is it? Scientific papers? All mine.. New vaccines? I will just copy the info and use it myself.

You are creating a cashless society that would have to rely on complete socialism or Fascism to survive.. I don't like your world.

Wowzas.

Being an avid BitTorrent user since 2003 I have a great idea for Hollywood and movie companies, they can have their own legal BitTorrent network to eliminate streaming costs, have all their movies lets say in 720p HD in standard mkv or mp4 format DRM free, if people want 1080p they can buy the Blu-Ray.

Do not interupt the movie with adverts because people will skip them, instead have adverts constantly streaming under the movie in the black box area, encoded into the movie file, advertisers will pay big bucks to have their adverts shown in a big block buster movie, or maby they pay everytime the movie is downloaded.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


Maybe you misunderstood my post. I initially stated that piracy is wrong, because on the basic level, it is wrong. Just like stealing is wrong, but a father stealing food to feed his children for the night could be excused out of sympathy. As far as all the rhetoric that media industries spew about digital piracy (software, music, video), I don't buy any of it for a second. I know about the shady tactics that these production companies use to screw over the very artists who are making the content for them to sell. Things like movie companies creating shell companies that operate at a loss then promising a new actor for that movie a percentage of that movie's net income or a record company paying a pittance to its music artists to the point that after the company is done with them, the artist is STILL broke. F those companies, I could care less how much money they lose to piracy.

I just wanted to be clear that if you are going to justify doing something that is ethically wrong, you should at least understand that what you are doing is wrong in most other situations. Just so you know, I have over 120 gigs of music on my HDD. I'll let you decide how I got most of it as I'm pleading the 5th on how I acquired it all.

reply to post by sheepslayer247


actually, that is a great idea. you run the banner along the bottom at key moments (think "pop up video", but with banners instead). Example: a character is sitting at a bar and reaches in to grab a handful of peanuts. a banner scrolls across, and gives a quick slogan, then references you to go to twitter to do something, or go to a web page to do something....this can be integrated for additional marketing, as when people take to twitter and send out tweets about your product).

There is an enormous potential in that strategy.