San Francisco, Jan 7 (IANS): Popcorn Time, a streaming service that was once popular for making pirated movies as easy as watching Netflix, has been shut down, media reports say.

The tool gained vast popularity for the ease with which it allowed users to stream pirated films and TV shows for free, reports The Independent.

Unlike more complicated or risky services, users were able to easily access what they wanted to watch, with the ease of streaming content on Netflix, the report said.

But that ease also drew ire from the streaming service with which it was so often compared.

After Popcorn Time was launched in 2014 and quickly surged to popularity, Netflix warned about the threat it posed and its creators quickly left.

The open-source nature of the service meant that other developers could pick up the tool and host it themselves, however, they continued to do so in the years following, allowing it to evade law enforcement.

But Popcorn Time now appears to be dead, according to a message posted on its website.