IP report highlights ‘Kodi’ box threat

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The annual IP crime and enforcement report: 2016 to 2017 from the UK’s Intellectual Property Office, which highlights current and emerging counterfeiting and piracy threats in the UK and overseas, suggests that one of the biggest challenges facing the pay-TV industry is the sale and use of illicit streaming devices, commonly known as set-top boxes, IPTV boxes or ‘Kodi’ boxes which, in their original form are legitimate.

Using an Internet connection, the device allows users to stream a wide range of content via a range of apps and add-ons – effectively turning the television into a smart TV. However, it is the use of third party unlicensed apps and add-ons that allow users to access copyright infringing material which turn the use from legal to illegal, notes Intellectual Property protection body FACT (Federation Against Copyright Theft).

Similarly, a report from the Industry Trust for IP Awareness suggests that 19 per cent of adults watch copyright-free material via such means. “Policing technological missuses and social media distribution requires investment, cooperation and, perhaps most importantly of all, raising the levels of awareness of the consequences of IP Crime amongst consumers and business people,” says the report.

Not long ago illegal streaming through Kodi Boxes was an ‘unknown’. Now, this technology updates copyright infringement by empowering TV viewers with the technology they need to subvert copyright law at the flick of a remote control. Statistics from Google, published in a report for the Industry Trust, show that the number of searches for Kodi Boxes in the UK had reached 206,000 per month by November 2016.

In the report’s Foreword, Jo Johnson, Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation, notes that recently-commissioned research from the IPO estimates 15 per cent, approximately 6.7 million of UK Internet users, consumed at least one item of online content illegally during the three months prior to March 2013. Moreover, because technology has made copying easier – it can be done through set-top boxes, streaming unlicensed TV programmes in the living room.