Also I use magnet links to download drivers and OS’s all the time. It’s not illegal, although it could be used as such - at least the same way a website can. Shall we start DCMAing chromium or Firefox? Obviously, you can use the web browser for nefarious purposes.
If Chromium or Firefox set their default homepages to 1337x or eztv and tied their search box into their results you'd bet they'd also get an DMCA notice
Google remove the links from _search results_
the third one has 11 different links to 1337x
Your friend is easily manipulated and is a prime candidate for an ad blocker. As silly as it is to sign up to pay multiple years in advance if he is actually using a site where he pirates movies he actually DOES need a VPN and 180 dollars for 3 years is only 5 usd a month which is relatively standard.
This goes back to the whole linking to infringing content is infringement, especially when the main purpose of the site / aggregator is to infringe
The popcorn time name, brand and project has been steadily dying in any case - I found out a few months ago that a friend purchased a $60 a year VPN because popcorn time told him he needed it (that's the revenue model for the developers). Turns out they charged his card for close to $180