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posted by janrinok on Friday March 28 2014, @10:35AM   Printer-friendly
from the we-show-the-movies-you-don't-want-to-watch dept.

mendax writes:

A New York Times op-ed reports:

A team of web designers recently released an astonishingly innovative app for streaming movies online. The program, Popcorn Time, worked a bit like Netflix, except it had one unusual, killer feature. It was full of movies you'd want to watch. When you loaded Popcorn Time, you were presented with a menu of recent Hollywood releases: "American Hustle," "Gravity," "The Wolf of Wall Street," "12 Years A Slave," and hundreds of other acclaimed films were all right there, available for instant streaming at the click of a button.

If Popcorn Time sounds too good to be true, that's because it was. The app was illegal - a well-designed, easy-to-use interface for the movie-pirating services that have long ruled the Internet's underbelly. Shortly after the app went public, its creators faced a barrage of legal notices, and they pulled it down. But like Napster in the late 1990s, Popcorn Time offered a glimpse of what seemed like the future, a model for how painless it should be to stream movies and TV shows online. The app also highlighted something we've all felt when settling in for a night with today's popular streaming services, whether Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, Hulu, or Google or Microsoft's media stores: They just aren't good enough.

 
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  • (Score: 3) by JeanCroix on Friday March 28 2014, @01:31PM

    by JeanCroix (573) on Friday March 28 2014, @01:31PM (#22502)
    I did the exact same thing. And honestly, I've found better things to do, so I can't say I'm missing it. In the end, the content cartel's own poor services effectively weaned me from its offerings.
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  • (Score: 3) by elf on Friday March 28 2014, @02:37PM

    by elf (64) on Friday March 28 2014, @02:37PM (#22530)

    I'm the opposite, I have periods of time where I am obsessed with Netflix's. I start a TV series then watch it as much as possible because I get addicted. I watch more netflix's than normal TV now.

    For me I don't go to the cinema anymore, I'm completely happy to wait and spend my money on the one medium where I can watch movies / tv as much as I like. Not everything is going to be there but enough new stuff comes on board that I always have something that interests me.