The creator of piracy service 'Popcorn Time' has revealed his identity

The creator of Popcorn Time, software which lets people watch movies illegally online, has chosen to reveal his identity and speak out about his experiences developing the site.

TorrentFreak reports that 29-year-old designer Federico Abad from Argentina revealed his identity in an interview with Norwegian newspaper Dagens Nåringsliv.

Abad explained that he was inspired to create Popcorn Time because internet speeds in Argentina are so bad and because major movies often reach Argentinian cinemas months after they are released in the US.

Developer Abad said that he recruited other people around the world using Twitter and Facebook. They worked overnight to create Popcorn Time and eventually "had concentration problems at work because of the project." Abad said that he worked so hard on the project that his girlfriend left him.

Popcorn Time let users illegally stream movies online for free. But it was shut down by Abad in 2014 after authorities put pressure on the site. Since then, other similar sites have launched that that use the same software. There's even a Popcorn Time app.

Abad said that he decided to shut down the project when he noticed that a lawyer working for Warner Brothers had viewed LinkedIn profiles belonging to developers working on Popcorn Time.

"We do not know how, but he had managed to track us down. We were quite put out. We thought it was a scare tactic," he said. "And we were frightened. None of us were anonymous anymore. They knew where we worked and where we lived."