14 DAY TRIAL // The MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) has publicly acknowledged it was the main culprit behind the recent shutdowns of Popcorn Time (popcorntime.io) and YTS (yts.to, formerly known as YIFY).
The revelation comes after an MPAA representative revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that they successfully managed to discover and then sue the persons behind those two projects.
MPAA sued 3 Popcorn Time developers living in Canada
According to the MPAA, the company's investigators managed to track down three of Popcorn Time's programmers, all living in Canada, a country that's friendlier to copyright-themed cases.
MPAA lawyers filed a lawsuit against the three in the Federal Court of Canada on October 9. The court issued an injunction on October 16, about the same time we were reporting on some internal disputes between the Popcorn Time developers.
At that time, the infighting was believed to have been sparked by an unknown and unconfirmed MPAA lawsuit. The team eventually split up, and the service, in spite of initial plans to continue, shut down a few days later as well.
PopcornTime.io was the most successful clone based on the original Popcorn Time project. Other clones continue to exist online.
MPAA sued YIFY operator in New Zeeland
A second lawsuit was filed on October 12 in the High Court of New Zealand, against a man suspected to be the main person running the YTS (YIFY) service. A temporary injunction against YIFY was obtained in this case as well.
All of these details fit the YIFY incident timeline, with this service also down since mid-October. Initial rumors had it down because of an unconfirmed DDoS attack.
Sources inside YIFY confirmed a few days back that the service would not be coming back online.
"This coordinated legal action is part of a larger comprehensive approach being taken by the MPAA and its international affiliates to combat content theft," said Chris Dodd, MPAA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
"Popcorn Time and YTS are illegal platforms that exist for one clear reason: to distribute stolen copies of the latest motion picture and television shows without compensating the people who worked so hard to make them," he added.