In the offices of Netflix and Hulu, Robert English is not a popular guy. To thousands of streamers who use his Popcorn Time service, however, he's a hero. Popcorn Time, which uses torrents to create a free streaming service, has existed in one form or another for a few years now. It split in two after authorities started cracking down on it, and English is one of around 20 developers currently working on PopcornTime.io, the “official” branch of the service.

English is known as KsaRedFx online. In real life, he's a Canadian in his early twenties. English is one of several Canadians known to be part of the Popcorn Time team. We reached out to him recently, and he was kind enough to respond to our questions.

Q: Could you tell a bit about your team, the roles of its members, and how your team is organized? How do you make decisions about new features and improvements to Popcorn Time?

A: To be honest our team is mostly just a mix of people who do all kinds of things. Decisions are made during meetings and are mostly slated for whatever the groups consensus was.

Q: I understand your team is quite international. Do you think internationality is a strength or weakness? Why?

A: I think it's a strength, because it means that we can bring in the talent from all over the world, instead of being locked to a single country.

Q: Federico Abad supposedly said he was inspired to create Popcorn Time because internet speeds in Argentina were so bad and because major movies often reached Argentine cinemas months after their release in the US. What is your primary motivation behind developing Popcorn Time?

A: The primary motivation for me behind Popcorn Time is to create something anyone can enjoy, and something that gives you access without restriction around the world.

Q: How would you describe your relationship with other popular Popcorn Time fork, PopcornTime.se? Do you have any cooperation with this other fork, or consider PopcornTime.io and Popcorn-Time.se to be competitors?

A: We have absolutely no relationship with the other Popcorn Time forks, and we aren't a business, so competition isn't something we worry about.

Q: Which companies, if any, do you consider to be Popcorn Time's competitors? What strategies do you use to stay ahead of your competition?

A: Leading back to the previous answer, we aren't a business, and we don't really care about competitors. We're just here to bring people something enjoyable and easy to use.

Q: Your group has been targeted by governments in the past – I have read that the government of Norway, for instance, has been blocking Popcorn Time-related sites. Abad shut down the original Popcorn Time because he was frightened by a Warner Bros. lawyer viewing his and his fellow developers' LinkedIn profiles. Do you currently have concerns over your domain's safety, and, more importantly, over your own safety as free citizens?

A: I personally do have some concerns about the domain, and my own safety… However, worst case scenario for the domain we simply set a new one up and keep going. That kind of thing isn't going to stop Popcorn Time, it's an open source program. Anyone can get it running in no time.

Q: I have also read that you don't accept donations or advertising money. How can you work so hard developing Popcorn Time without any monetary compensation? How do you get the funds to keep the site up?

A: You're correct, we do not accept donations of any kind. If you want to help out, you can help fix bugs or add features to the app via our git. Popcorn Time is supported entirely by its developers, and because of its distributed nature we don't need to serve and movie or media content. That brings costs down some.

Q: What is your view about the alleged illegality of Popcorn Time and, at least indirectly, your work? (The ‘inducement rule' holds companies or individuals accountable for infringements if they clearly encourage users to infringe or provide access only to infringing content and no other legal content.)

A: I'm not a lawyer and frankly I don't know everything about this, so I don't have anything to say here.

Q: What's next for Popcorn Time? Do you have any new features or improvements on the horizon (for example, support for new devices)?

A: We certainly have iOS support coming eventually. New features are something we add all the time, so those will always be on the horizon.

Q: What do you think the streaming/cable landscape will look like in five years?

A: Hopefully the streaming and on demand world will be in a lot better shape, with less segmentation and issues for people outside of North America and the ability to watch things from one single site.