FYI Kodi Users: A piracy lawsuit is tearing Kodi's add-on community apart

EndersShadow

I've been saying its gonna happen and its finally starting to. Kodi Add-On folks, be aware, the battle has begun, and start debating your potential liability if your using similar Add-Ons...

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Some of the biggest third-party Kodi streaming addons are no longer available. TorrentFreak reports that ZemTV and Phoenix have recently closed following a lawsuit from US satellite broadcaster Dish Network, with other streaming add-ons following suit. The add-ons, which offer on-demand and live streamed content free of charge, are accused of direct copyright infringement of various TV channels.

In a statement on the TVAddons forum, Phoenix developer Cosmix confirmed the closure, but didn't elaborate on the exact reason why: "In light of current events we have decided to close down Phoenix," he said. "This is not something that was easy for us to do; we have all formed a bond that cannot be broken as a team and have a HUGE support base that we are thankful of."

It's thought that while the Dish lawsuit is currently focused on other streaming add-ons, developers like Cosmix are distancing themselves (full list here) from any potential legal action due to the costs involved. Many Kodi developers consider themselves hobbyists and administer add-ons in their free time for no financial reward.

As copyright infringement damages can run into the hundreds of thousands (the Dish Network suit demands $150,000 per infringement), developers could be hit hard. ZemTV was removed from the TVAddons library as soon as it was named in the lawsuit and One242415 -- the developer behind Navi-X, Phoenix and his own add-on -- also announced that his creations will cease working in the coming days.

ZemTV rose to prominence as a reliable source of live TV streams from around the world. Phoenix, on the other hand, offered access to TV shows, movies and live sport, which led it to become one of the banner add-ons advertised by retailers selling "fully-loaded" Kodi boxes. In April, the European Court of Justice (CJEU) ruled that sales of streaming boxes that come pre-loaded with piracy add-ons constitute copyright infringement, which could lead to a European crackdown on such hardware.

Kodi -- the company behind the popular media center -- often finds itself entangled in legal action, even though it actively discourages the promotion of piracy add-ons on its platform. It provides the open source software but doesn't dictate which add-ons are allowed on the platform.

Instead, it asks that developers of so-called piracy add-ons don't affiliate themselves with Kodi. The team dreams of having legitimate services like Amazon and Netflix offer their own apps, but that's a tough ask when it's constantly having to deal with the negativity around illegal streaming add-ons on its platform.

Link to article here

FTGV

Dang,Phoenix and Exodus were great add on' s. I guess the plug will get pulled on Exodus as well soon.

Jstas

I know quite a few people who have such boxes and swear up and down that I should get one.

I told them the majority of the content was pirated and they were hypocrites but they scoffed at me.

They were hypocrites because I've been known to get old TV shows or obscure movies that you can't find anywhere off of torrent servers for people. They get upset when they find out it's pirated. Dunno how they are going to get it otherwise and they never seem to have a problem keeping it.

But now, they are all pirates themselves and I told them this was coming.

Wonder what they are gonna do?

I'm just going to sit here and chuckle at them.

Silly users, hacks are for pros.

EndersShadow

I agree @Jstas

All I hear is Kodi Box, get a Kodi Box or a Jailbroken Fire and then cut your cable entirely and you will still get all your channels AND THEN SOME.... and I've always said you know it's pirated content right and you could be sitting on a really fun fine if they every crack down on the user level.

Now that they are cracking down on the content the desire for the boxes will wane if not disappear as without the content they are worthless to most folks....

Imma sit back and watch the world burn with a chuckle.

FTGV

Kodi can still be used to stream music or video files .Some of the boxes have apps such as Spotify and Netflix so won't be completely useless. I'm using Kodi on a Raspberry pi so a simple software change (Volumio or Rune) and I can re purpose it as a versatile digital audio file player.

EndersShadow

Oh I know that one it's just that most users bought it for the UNLOCK portion as they likely already have other devices that have Netflix or Spotify built in.

I used to use Kodi but I Moved to Plex and like it better, mainly because my movies are ripped in a easy to use format. I think Kodi handles more exotic formats that PLEX may not.

Nightfall

Cut the head off one, another will sprout.

EndersShadow

Nightfall wrote: »

Cut the head off one, another will sprout.

Till they start losing lawsuits and become liable for a million plus in judgements....

tonyb

I'm just shocked it took this long. Kodi has built a whole industry around pirated content....where were all the legal eagles before ?

Nightfall

EndersShadow wrote: »

Nightfall wrote: »

Cut the head off one, another will sprout.

Till they start losing lawsuits and become liable for a million plus in judgements....

Digital piracy has been a thing since the 5.25" floppy, I don't think it's going anywhere.

VPN's will become more popular in a worst case scenario.

EndersShadow

Nightfall wrote: »

EndersShadow wrote: »

Nightfall wrote: »

Cut the head off one, another will sprout.

Till they start losing lawsuits and become liable for a million plus in judgements....

Digital piracy has been a thing since the 5.25" floppy, I don't think it's going anywhere.

VPN's will become more popular in a worst case scenario.

For the end user, yes but the content is housed/distributed on servers somewhere and they will get that shut down slowly.

Look at Napster as an example.... or Pirate Bay... eventually they got them or at least made it more of a pain than most people wanted to put up w.

If the end user has to do more than maybe 15 clicks or keep searching what servers to hit they quickly lose interest and move on.

mrbigbluelight

My advice:



You should run silent
And you should run very deep
That's the best way to avoid
The grasp of Bungo Pete

That's my haiku for today

Nightfall

EndersShadow wrote: »

If the end user has to do more than maybe 15 clicks or keep searching what servers to hit they quickly lose interest and move on.

That's true. For the "nerds", though, piracy will always be around.

EndersShadow

Nightfall wrote: »

EndersShadow wrote: »

If the end user has to do more than maybe 15 clicks or keep searching what servers to hit they quickly lose interest and move on.

That's true. For the "nerds", though, piracy will always be around.

Agreed but the Kodi boxes are mostly used by NON nerds currently.

Strong Bad

I have people that keep telling me to get a Kodi.

I'll pass! It's all pirated content and I don't need it that bad.

pitdogg2

tonyb wrote: »

I'm just shocked it took this long. Kodi has built a whole industry around pirated content....where were all the legal eagles before ?

Waiting for them to get good and comfortable so they now can own them and when they put up a fight bury them in litigation. Dish is well versed in this modus operandi

EndersShadow

Strong Bad wrote: »

I have people that keep telling me to get a Kodi.

I'll pass! It's all pirated content and I don't need it that bad.

This video has and will NEVER be more relevant..... I think of it everytime I see you post..

https://youtu.be/GtQpThwWQtQ?t=27s

ZLTFUL

Dan, Plex formats are *only* limited by the playback device. The smart TV apps tend to be weaker in that regard as they only play certain formats while a HTPC using the Media Player app *should* be able to play them all.

MrBBL,
Traditional haiku are always the same, including the following features: There are only three lines, totaling 17 syllables. The first line is 5 syllables. The second line is 7 syllables. So your haiku is not.

Jstas

mrbigbluelight wrote: »

My advice:

You should run silent
And you should run very deep
That's the best way to avoid
The grasp of Bungo Pete

That's my haiku for today

Or, just get yourself a VPN service that bounces you through several dozen access points so you're done taking what you want to take before a trace can actually find you.

Software and media pirates are going no where. Mainly because there is an ideal out there that the Internet should be completely free, including all content. That's all well and good but like all infrastructure, it costs to maintain. So it can't be free completely.

But just like stuff like radical religious groups, extreme political parties and just flat out messed up people, cracking down on piracy will stop your average joe from using it. That's it. The rest? They are running on ideals, causes, crusades of their own.

But that one who goes for the ideal? You won't stop them. You'll just slow them down because it's not about the money for them. It's about the principle and you can't put a price tag on that. All you can hope to do is slow them down enough that you find their "in" and shut it down before they can do damage. Even if it means you found them and send the cops to their door to bust some heads.

I do system security for a living. I combat the people who want to steal your info daily. Which is funny given my past. But I digress. I am under no delusions that security is a reality.

All security means is that you have put enough pitfalls, booby traps, firewalls and obstacles between the outside world and what you want to keep safe that the cost of retrieving your thing you want to keep safe is greater than the value of your valuable thing.

That will eliminate 90% of the people out there looking to gank your stuff. But that last 10%? They are the ones who want the feather in their cap. They want the conquest. They couldn't care less about your movie or your music or your bank account. They just want to be the one who got it for a number of reasons. None of which are getting rich. Stealing money is easy on the Internet. Stealing prestige? Incredibly hard.

You won't stop that person.

The majority of breaches that happen were done by someone who wanted to tackle the challenge. Something like 75% of all stolen content (music, movies, tv shows, books, etc etc etc) is stolen by less than 1% of the global population. It's downloaded by like 30% of the 9 billion or so people on the planet, though.

So yeah, don't ever think that things like privacy or security exist. Just remember that you don't matter until you cost someone money. Then they will find you and take it back one way or another.

mrbigbluelight

5-7-7-5.

That's haiku the way the Big Guy Upstairs enjoys it.

...... He told me so.


You're correct, John, in that there really isn't such a thing as privacy anymore.
Even modern nuclear subs have a limiting "crush depth" that limits how deep they can go.
Or should go.
So if one finds Bungo Pete on your tail, you put some jetsam in the torpedo tubes and make BP think it's flotsam.

Willow

I have kodi and only use it to stream stuff from my pc. I also have a vpn.

codycatalist

I installed Kodi on my Fire stick and never liked how slow it was (at least for me). I stopped using it, got PS Vue to add to my netflix, hulu and amazon video. I have a bunch of movies on my Vudu from digital download codes I get from family and friends. I have a site that streams live sports in case I need to watch a PPV sports event or something for free, i'm pretty content at this point.

WLDock

I'm about to cut the Xfinity cord and everyone keeps telling to go Kodi. With so many gong this route I knew this was coming...just like some of the recent online sites that got shutdown over the last several years.