Popcorn Time, sometimes called as the Netflix for pirates, is back from the dead with the recent release of its reportedly more resilient mobile application beta version 5.0 and vows to stay online like its BitTorrent counterpart The Pirate Bay.

The torrent streaming service, which allows the watching of movies and television shows without the need to download them, is hugely popular, according to IBTimes UK. For instance, Popcorn Time's European fork Time4Popcorn counted around four million users around the world.

Pressure from authorities

Yet like The Pirate Bay before it, Popcorn Time is feeling the heat from European authorities and saw its Time4Popcorn.eu domain suspended by the European Registry for Internet Domains or EURid. Under the European Commission, EURid regulates website domains operating within the confines of the continent.

The streaming app operator is currently under legal investigation following complaints of copyright infringement, BGR said in a report.

As a result, Popcorn Time's traffic was reduced to zero, leading to the likelihood that it is headed to extinction soon.

Popcorn Time fights back

But the BitTorrent content streamers, which film and TV producers accused of illegal activities, simply refused to die. With the EURid suspension, the developers realised that is vulnerable to clamp downs so it shifted to the .se domain, following the route earlier taken by The Pirate Bay that is now accessible via ThePirateBay.se.

"EURid tried to take us down and instead of doing so, they just opened our eyes and made us better and wiser," TorrentFreak reported the Popcorn Time developers as saying.

The group also vowed to implement measures that it declared will successfully dodge future domain suspension attempts and remain "unstoppable."

Beta 5.0 release

For Popcorn Time so stay alive, the devs worked on the release of the application's beta build 5.0, which the group claims has so far generated 25,000 installs per day since the app was first rolled out. The group is upbeat that it will soon recover its base following.

Unlike its predecessors, Beta 5.0 is tougher to neutralize as the group asserts in a statement that "in the future even the necessary data for Popcorn Time will be transferred purely via Peer2Peer (the infrastructure for this is already in the beta 5.0)."

Popcorn Time hinted too that upcoming updates could permit the download of digital contents in the same way that files are shared and obtained from The Pirate Bay.

Popcorn Time users, however, are strongly advised by BGR to fully understand the fine prints surrounding the application before taking the plunge lest they end up breaking existing laws and regulations.