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'Netflix for Pirated Movies' Now Works in Your Browser

 & Chloe Albanesius Executive Editor, News

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Movie piracy just got a lot easier.

Popcorn Time, which basically functions as a Netflix for pirated content, is now available within the browser. Just navigate to popcorninyourbrowser.net, find a movie, and start watching.

Popcorn Time arrived last year and was quickly pulled offline, but later returned after moving overseas. It's still live at popcorn-time.se, but requires a download.

With popcorninyourbrowser, you watch right from the Web, without downloading anything to your device. It's not entirely clear if the people behind popcorn-time.se are also running popcorninyourbrowser.net; Popcorn Time did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A note at the bottom of popcorninyourbrowser.net says the content is a mash-up of torrent site YTS and Coinado, a remote torrenting service.

In an October letter to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Motion Picture Association of America said that "the content on Yts.re supports desktop torrent streaming application 'Popcorn Time,' which has an install base of 1.4 million devices and more than 100,000 active users in the United States alone."

The .re domain is associated with the French island of Réunion. YTS is currently hosted at the .to domain, which is run by the government of Tonga.

The site is pretty bare bones, with a few recommendations up front. Type in the movie you're looking for in the search box, and a drop-down menu will show you the results. Select something, wait for it to load, and the movie will begin to load.

Not surprisingly, quality is a little iffy. I got an older movie to load and play without interruption. But more popular, current films had some buffering or just failed to load.

As BGR noted, Popcorn Time has a built-in VPN, which can prevent your ISP from detecting illegal activity (which this most certainly is). Popcorninyourbrowser.net does not have VPN protection.

About Our Expert

Chloe Albanesius

Chloe Albanesius

Executive Editor, News

My Experience

I started out covering tech policy in DC for The National Journal, where my beat included state-level tech news and all the congressional hearings and FCC meetings I could handle. I later covered Wall Street trading tech before switching gears to consumer tech. I now lead PCMag's news coverage.

My Areas of Expertise

Getting my start in DC means I still have a soft spot for tech policy; Congressional hearings can sometimes be as entertaining as a Bravo reality show, for better or worse. But PCMag is all about the technology we use every day, as well as keeping an eye out for the trends that will shape the industry in the years ahead (or flop on arrival). I've covered the rise of social media, the iOS vs. Android wars, the cord-cutting revolution that's now left us with hefty streaming bills, and the effort to stuff artificial intelligence into every product you could imagine. This job has taken me to CES in Vegas (one too many times), IFA in Berlin, and MWC in Barcelona. I also drove a Tesla 1,000 miles out west as part of our Best Mobile Networks project. Of late, my focus is on our hard-working team of reporters at PCMag, guiding and editing their robust coverage.

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