We are used to illegal activities looking and feeling far more illegal than this.

A new BitTorrent-powered video app has been released that beautifies the torrenting process to the point that TorrentFreak describes it as "Netflix for pirates." The app, which is available for OS X, Windows, and Linux, shows a catalog of movies and loads them up on a computer in an interface as seamless as that of most legit streaming services, but using means that are generally less than legal.

Typically, torrenting a movie (illegally, if it's copyrighted property) involves seeking out a sketchy torrent website littered with porn ads to download a .torrent file that users hope will actually result in a movie and not, say, a virus. The process's pitfalls and risks are many, not to mention the potential for getting called out by one's ISP and, in rare instances, being fined or sued. Popcorn Time eliminates the seedier aspects of torrent location in a slick app that doesn't involve dealing with files, download speeds, or seeding—at least on the front end.

The app began as a Github project that now has over 50 contributors. It is free, open-source, and has no ads or other money-making schemes. The app works by using an API provided by torrent service YTS to stream the file, which is then shared from the user's computer after the download is completed.