After The Pirate Bay incorporated Torrents Time support in its website a few days ago, Kickass Torrents is now supporting the plugin that lets you stream any movie or TV show you desire in a browser, rather than downloading it and playing it on your computer. Mind you, these services offer access to illegal content, and movie studios are hardly happy with this development.
In fact, the new Torrents Time service that was unveiled only recently, delivered a new blow to copyright holders, as the simple innovation allows anyone to create their Netflix-like Popcorn Time experience.
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That means you can now stream movies easier than ever, complete with subtitles support, right from inside the browser. And you can cast video playback directly to a big-screen TV via Chromecast, AirPlay or DLNA.
Following Kickass Torrents and the Pirate Bay are many similar services, including 1337x.to and rarbg.to. “This is indeed a massive change, If you count the first big five torrent sites and add all the other large ones already working with us and all the streaming sites that pop up like daffodils after the rain, it is obvious that we started a revolution which allows any user to stream content directly from the browser, without leaving the site from which they started, without bothering with video codecs, storage space, messing with directories and file names,” the Torrents Time team said in an email. “No more hesitating whether it’s ok to download a torrent file or to wait until downloading finished.”
Meanwhile, movie studios are eager to shut down the Pirate Bay’s streaming technology, Torrent Freak reports.
Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN issued a cease and desist letter to Torrents Time, saying that the software is illegal. Torrents Time is hosted in the Netherlands, which is why BREIN is taking action against the service.
“By offering Torrents Time, which is primarily engaged in the facilitating, enabling and participating in the making available of infringing files, according to the law and jurisprudence of The Netherlands you are acting unlawful and infringe the copyrights and neighboring rights of others, including the rights holders whose interests are represented by BREIN,” lawyer Pieter Haringsma said.
“This causes extensive damage to rights holders for which you – and all others involved with the management of the site – are liable. In the interest of and on behalf of the rights holders represented by BREIN, we request that you cease and desist the distribution of Torrents Time immediately.”
Torrents Time, meanwhile, responded that its software isn’t illegal, as “it was carefully crafted not to do anything whatsoever so as to breach copyright or neighboring rights.”
