Popcorn Time – Watch torrent movies instantly • Hacker News Board

Re: Popcorn Time – Watch torrent movies instantly

#51

Post by kzrdude » Tue, Mar 11, 2014, 2:23 PM UTC

d23 wrote: post #44

> Downloading copyrighted material may be illegal in your country. Use at your own risk. Have we seriously just stopped considering the ethical implications of such things? At least these sorts of sites used to pretend they were for things like "public domain movies" and "personal backups."

YouTube has established a huge gray zone though! So much of the material I watch there is not actually uploaded with permission.

Re: Popcorn Time – Watch torrent movies instantly

#52

Post by MatthewPhillips » Tue, Mar 11, 2014, 2:23 PM UTC

humanfromearth wrote: post #45

If you look at this file here: https://github.com/popcorn-time/popcorn-app/blob/master/js/t... It sends usage data to Google Analytics. I can see how this can translate into you getting caught. Be careful. Even if you don't have a 'trackingId' set it still sends GET requests to http://google.com/

Add this to your /etc/hosts

   127.0.0.1 ssl.google-analytics.com
   127.0.0.1 www.google-analytics.com
   127.0.0.1 google-analytics.com

Re: Popcorn Time – Watch torrent movies instantly

#53

Post by solipsism » Tue, Mar 11, 2014, 2:25 PM UTC

d23 wrote: post #44

> Downloading copyrighted material may be illegal in your country. Use at your own risk. Have we seriously just stopped considering the ethical implications of such things? At least these sorts of sites used to pretend they were for things like "public domain movies" and "personal backups."

They seem to be leaving the ethical considerations to the users, which I think is perfectly reasonable. Popcorn Time can't decide for you whether it's okay to stream a movie that you own the VHS for. Or whether it's okay for you to stream a movie you can't find on the market anymore. Or whether it's okay for you to stream a movie published by a company that distorts copyright law for its own financial gain.

Re: Popcorn Time – Watch torrent movies instantly

#54

Post by laacz » Tue, Mar 11, 2014, 2:25 PM UTC

snippyhollow wrote: post #23

XBMC torrent has been out there for a while http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=174736 It's free software https://github.com/steeve/xbmctorrent and uses libtorrent-rasterbar through https://github.com/steeve/libtorrent-go

Yes, but this one aims for nice interface and simplicity - install and start watching. For people who are not tech savy this app will win.

Re: Popcorn Time – Watch torrent movies instantly

#55

Post by ultramancool » Tue, Mar 11, 2014, 2:26 PM UTC

humanfromearth wrote: post #45

If you look at this file here: https://github.com/popcorn-time/popcorn-app/blob/master/js/t... It sends usage data to Google Analytics. I can see how this can translate into you getting caught. Be careful. Even if you don't have a 'trackingId' set it still sends GET requests to http://google.com/

You're far more likely to be caught by directly looking at torrent peers as is already done in bulk by media companies and is far better proof of piracy than a Google Analytics hit. Use a VPN if you're using this and have any questions about the legality of it in your area. Typically VPN providers only get complaints sent to datacenters, not actual lawsuits.

Re: Popcorn Time – Watch torrent movies instantly

#56

Post by humanfromearth » Tue, Mar 11, 2014, 2:27 PM UTC

MatthewPhillips wrote: post #52

humanfromearth wrote: post #45

If you look at this file here: https://github.com/popcorn-time/popcorn-app/blob/master/js/t... It sends usage data to Google Analytics. I can see how this can translate into you getting caught. Be careful. Even if you don't have a 'trackingId' set it still sends GET requests to http://google.com/

Add this to your /etc/hosts 127.0.0.1 ssl.google-analytics.com 127.0.0.1 www.google-analytics.com 127.0.0.1 google-analytics.com

And google.com too?

Re: Popcorn Time – Watch torrent movies instantly

#57

Post by dubcanada » Tue, Mar 11, 2014, 2:31 PM UTC

humanfromearth wrote: post #56

MatthewPhillips wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Add this to your /etc/hosts 127.0.0.1 ssl.google-analytics.com 127.0.0.1 www.google-analytics.com 127.0.0.1 google-analytics.com

And google.com too?

Take it out. Node-webkit is just a bunch of JS files, just go to that directory and remove it then continue on with your day.

Re: Popcorn Time – Watch torrent movies instantly

#58

Post by MatthewPhillips » Tue, Mar 11, 2014, 2:31 PM UTC

humanfromearth wrote: post #56

MatthewPhillips wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Add this to your /etc/hosts 127.0.0.1 ssl.google-analytics.com 127.0.0.1 www.google-analytics.com 127.0.0.1 google-analytics.com

And google.com too?

What danger are GET requests to google.com?

Re: Popcorn Time – Watch torrent movies instantly

#59

Post by hershel » Tue, Mar 11, 2014, 2:31 PM UTC

I think if this idea of equivalence between paid and pirated content is taken to it's logical extreme, the result will be less movies being produced.

Maybe it's preferable to keep it as is today: piracy as an option for some and as a force against too much control from the content industry.

Re: Popcorn Time – Watch torrent movies instantly

#60

Post by gabriel34 » Tue, Mar 11, 2014, 2:34 PM UTC

Stream for torrents is extremely damaging to the swarm, specially for new torrents. It breaks the protocol and may end up killing itself. Picture a case of major success for this: At Prime Time there is a rush of people streaming from a torrent, acquiring the same pieces of the torrent without servers to counterbalance the upload speed of people with the complete files can't stream the file in real time to a few people who in their turn can't replicate it fast enough to lots of people.