'Netflix for pirates' Popcorn Time web browser app Shut Down, Revived Again

The apparently 15-year-old programmer behind piracy website "Browser Popcorn" appears to have gone to ground after the site changed domains multiple times in the wake of legal threats.

Milan Kragujevic told the world last week he would keep moving the web address of his film piracy site, which allows users to search for and watch films for free in their web browser with just a few clicks, to dodge authorities. And that's exactly what's happened.

Torrent Freak reported that Kragujevic removed the web app from its original home at browserpopcorn.xyz in response to threats from the Motion Picture Association of America, which represents six major Hollywood studios who own copyright to some of the films available at the site.

It popped up later at browserpopcorn.gq, but now that site also reads "Nothing here."
At the time of writing, Browser Popcorn is live at browserpopcorn.biz, but you can bet your bottom dollar that won't be the last time it budges.

But while the piracy app lives, the teenager who claims to have created the site, which is not affiliated with the original Popcorn Time desktop app, has apparently backed away from responsibility for the project.

Technology news website The Verge reported an email exchange with Kragujevic in which he explained he had passed responsibility for the site to a 35-year-old "close friend ... until the dust settles, maybe permanently". He claimed he would stay involved with developing the site but wouldn't be "the one to fall when things become dire".

Kragujevic's Twitter account and personal website, both of which used his full name, have been disabled. A Facebook account linked to his YouTube profile with the username "Volim Ubuntu" ("I love Ubuntu" in Serbian, referring to the computer operating system) is also no longer active.

Various fans of Browser Popcorn have questioned Kragujevic in comments at the website Product Hunt, but he hasn't surfaced there for days.

We contacted Kragujevic for comment but have yet to hear back.

A search of Kragujevic's online reveals he has been working on Browser Popcorn and other piracy-related projects for some years.
In the comment thread at Product Hunt he claimed to have been programming since age 11.

Kragujevic appears to also be behind a similar app called MovBucket, which he posted a demo video of on YouTube earlier this month. While that app is not currently available - apparently a smart TV version is in the works - it has been up and running in the past.

In a web forum comment dated May 24 this year, Kragujevic claimed MovBucket had been running "for over a year" and was also the engine behind another app, found at popcorntimefree.info. That web address now redirects to browserpopcorn.xyz, the original site for Browser Popcorn before it was moved.

"I'm happy to make people's lives better and appreciate all feedback," Kragujevic wrote in the Hacker News forum thread at Y Combinator, a well-known start-up accelerator based in the United States.

Kragujevic had also scouted for legal advice in the same forum about his plans for MovBucket.

As far back as July last year, he claimed his Popcorn Time lookalike apps were "more legal" than simply torrenting copyrighted content because users were only downloading content from servers via an app, not uploading it.

Torrenting is a form of file-sharing where users download a file from multiple hosts using a BitTorrent client. But most clients by default also upload and share files to other users simultaneously.

Copyright owners have argued that people who torrent copyrighted material are breaching copyright multiple times because they are also uploading content.

Both Popcorn Time and Browser Popcorn use torrenting "under the hood", but the user only sees a clean, searchable interface similar to Netflix or any other streaming app.

However Kragujevic pointed out that Browser Popcorn and MovBucket host all the content themselves, so a user is only required to download it.

"This has absolutely nothing to do with Popcorn Time - Popcorn Time uses other people's architecture while MovBucket has it's [sic] own server and a list of movies that I maintain," he wrote.

It's highly doubtful that "more legal" would stand up in court when copyright owners seek vengeance, however.

In May last year, ostensibly only aged 13 or 14, Kragujevic bragged in the comments section of a YouTube video about cheap internet rates through Telekom Srbija in Serbia, where he lives "on a farm", which allowed him to torrent.

"13€ per month with no data cap, allowed torrent [sic] and 10 mbps down, 2.3 mbps up. I'm so lucky!"

In separate news, users of the desktop version of Popcorn Time, which needs to be downloaded as a standalone app, reported it was down on Thursday.