Pirate Bay teams up with Torrents Time, browser-based Popcorn Time alternative, to provide on demand video streaming

Feb 9, 2016 12:52 GMT  ·  By

The Pirate Bay has teamed up with Torrents Time developers and has added a "Stream It!" button to the portal's interface that allows users to watch movies directly on the site, effectively transforming the portal into the Internet's biggest streaming site.

Last week, a new technology called Torrents Time surfaced online, coming as another attempt at a Web-based Popcorn Time client.

Torrents Time is another crack at having Popcorn Time run in the browser

Torrents Time works based on a series of browser extensions, which automate the process of downloading content via P2P connections, and then play it back in real time using modern Web technologies like HTML5.

Their idea was nothing new, and other attempts existed before, but all fell apart after copyright groups hounded their creators and threatened with lawsuits. Such examples include the BrowserPopcorn.xyz and the PopcornInYourBrowser.net services, both of which barely made it past their one-week anniversary.

As it stands now, the Torrents-Time.com service is still alive and kicking, even if Holland's BREIN anti-piracy group has started legal procedures to have the domain taken down.

The Pirate Bay to the rescue!

Regardless of these legal issues, Pirate Bay's operators have taken a gamble and added a "Stream It" button next to each torrent's "Download" options. This button allows users who have the Torrents Time browser extension installed to watch the torrent's video content right inside the browser, without having to download it first.

If the user doesn't have the extension installed, Pirate Bay starts an automatic download of the Torrents Time installation package, which users will then have to double-click and install.

If you fear that malware may be packed with an installer shoved down your throat via Pirate Bay's ad-filled site, you can also go to Torrents Time's official website and download the installer yourself, since it's practically the same version.

Streaming options put a bigger target on The Pirate Bay

With BREIN putting quite the legal pressure on Torrents Time creators, the move to open-source the code on GitHub and work together with The Pirate Bay team has almost guaranteed its survival, even if Hollywood manages to take down the main service.

Pirate Bay's backing will ensure the Torrents Time project lives on forever, just as Popcorn Time lives on today after its creator, an Argentinian developer, decided to abandon it after similar legal pressure, but not before also open-sourcing the app's code.

Unless something unexpected happens, like Pirate Bay losing all of its domains, which is a possibility, the Torrents Time project has a home under Pirate Bay's huge shadow.

While this partnership may be beneficial to Torrents Time, it may be more damaging than we think to Pirate Bay's operators, who in recent months have been hounded all over the world, losing back-up domains left and right. By adding support for streaming, The Pirate Bay has just painted a bigger target on its back, with Hollywood studios expected to intensify their efforts into shutting down the service, now that it's even easier than before to access its content.

You can now stream Pirate Bay torrents inside the browser in real time
You can now stream Pirate Bay torrents inside the browser in real time

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The new Stream It button on The Pirate Bay
You can now stream Pirate Bay torrents inside the browser in real time
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