The Pirate Bay Is Now the World’s Largest Illegal Streaming Site

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Thought the Pirate Bay was dead? With just one move, the world’s former piracy kind could become bigger than ever.

The Pirate Bay now allows its users to stream video content without having to download anything.  As previously reported on DMN, this has been made possible due to an alliance with Torrents-Time, one that’s just getting started.

Torrentfreak accurately describes Torrents-Time as ”a browser plug-in for Windows and Mac that allows people to view torrents embedded in a webpage without need for an external torrent client”.

“By harnessing the incredible abilities of torrents, you can transform your website, in a matter of seconds to an amazing, simple to use streaming website,” says the Torrents-Time team on their site.

Torrents-Time has now transformed The Pirate Bay into the world’s largest illegal streaming portal overnight.

Torrents-Time could recognize a good revenue stream from The Pirate Bay.  The Torrents-Time business model is based around migrating users towards a paid VPN service on a daily or monthly basis, all of which could drive cash towards both partners.

But the Torrents-Time plugin isn’t solely built for The Pirate Bay; any torrenting site can add support.  That includes Kickass Torrents, now larger than the Pirate Bay (and already showing signs of partnering).  “We are certain that in no time we’ll be embedded in all torrent sites who care to move on with this evolution,” Torrents-Time told Torrent Freak.

So how does this integration work?

The Pirate Bay is simply putting Torrents-Time links next to their download link, currently named  “Stream It! (Beta)” on video files.  When the user clicks it, a software installation is triggered, which then creates a popup screen containing a video player.  If the users opts to click ‘play,’ the player warns that IP addresses are exposed, and delivers an advert to buy a VPN, for a daily, monthly or yearly time period.

Alternatively the user can opt out and ‘skip’ the advert.  The software then finds peers with the required content.  After peers are found and content buffered, users can begin the playback.

What does the future hold for Torrents-Time?

Torrent-Time is blowing up, but that could make it a very juicy target by government bodies and industry organizations trying to combat piracy.  According to a report by The Independent, the site has ”already been served with a cease-and-desist letter”.

BREIN, an anti-piracy group based in the Netherlands, believes it to be an “illegal application” and is appealing for the administrators to “cease and desist the distribution of Torrents-Time immediately.”