Torrents Time's Debut On Kickass Torrents, Other Piracy Sites Leads To Legal Warning

Well, that didn't take long. Less than a week after the Pirate Bay, Popcorn Time and other well known movie piracy sites began to incorporate Torrents Time, copyright rights enforcers have warned that the browser plug-in enables illegal activity.

The Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN issued a cease and desist letter to the Torrents Time team on the basis that Torrents Time is distributing copyrighted media content without copyright holders' authorization.

Torrents Time is a web browser plug-in that, for the first time ever, makes it possible for users to stream pirated movies and TV shows directly to their browser, eliminating the need to download a separate, often bulky, torrent application like uTorrent or Vuze. It's been adopted on Popcorn Time Online, the Pirate Bay and a range of smaller sites, and the timing of the BREIN letter coincides with Torrents Time's introduction on Kickass Torrents.

“By offering Torrents Time, which is primarily engaged in the facilitating, enabling and participating in the making available of infringing files, according to the law and jurisprudence of the Netherlands your are acting unlawful and infringe the copyrights and neighboring rights of others, including the rights holders whose interests are represented by BREIN,” the letter stated, as quoted by TorrentFreak Monday.

“This causes extensive damage to rights holders for which you – and all others involved with the management of the site – are liable. In the interest of and on behalf of the rights holders represented by BREIN, we request that you cease and desist the distribution of Torrents Time immediately.”

BREIN routinely issues legal advisories to suspected copyright scofflaws. The group previously had the original Pirate Bay domain suspended and took six of the most popular Popcorn Time websites offline for part of Europe, among other victories.

Torrents Time administrators don't seem worried, though, if an email sent to International Business Times Tuesday is any indication. The service was just unveiled on Kickass Torrents, Torrents Time said, one of the 100 most popular websites in the world, and home to a massive selection of illicit movies.

“Torrents Time is revolutionizing the world of torrents, here and now. Because it's a revolution, you can expect bloodshed, like the fate of all revolutions,” the Torrents Time team wrote in reference to the BREIN letter. “But because it's the people's revolution, a network of hundreds of millions of people who wish to consume free content, the people will prevail and the illegal harassment by the film and TV producers industry who claim that peer-to-peer ruins their business model will be defeated.”