Kodi: Online streaming users stunned as add-on told ’we hope you lose in court’

[Len]

KODI is waging a war of words with popular add-on repository, TVAddons. Users were left stunned as Kodi told TVAddons “we hope you lose in court”, referencing the copyright case facing the streaming add-on hosts.

Kodi has started a war of words with add-on repository, TVAddons.

The latter is currently facing three counts of copyright infringement in a Texas District Court.

Kodi has told TVAddons, which hosts a number of software plugins that run on the Kodi media player, it would like to see the online repository site lose its case.

“We hope you lose in court,” Kodi tweeted at the official TVAddons social media account.

For those unaware, Kodi is a neutral, open-source media player that can be installed on a broad range of devices – from discount set-top boxes powered by Android, to known brands, like Amazon Fire TV Stick.

Apps – known as add-ons – can be built by third-party developers to allow users to stream premium content, like paid-for sports and movie channels for free.

The abundance of these illegal streaming add-ons has left Kodi with an unfortunate reputation.

So-called Kodi Boxes are devices, manufactured by a number of different brands, with all the requisite third-party software to stream paid-for content for free preinstalled on the set-top box.

TVAddons is one of the leading add-on libraries for the Kodi media player.

Despite TVAddons boasting that it is “powered by Kodi” within its official logo, there seems to be no love lost between the online repository and the media player software.

The Twitter spat started when an account identified as Mark Davies tweeted Kodi to congratulate them for being “an excellent pathway for pirate add-ons” and to “keep up the good work”.

Kodi, which has a reputation for its abrasive responses to fans of online piracy, said the user was an excellent example of why contraception should be more widely considered”.

This shocking comeback caused another social media user mentioned TVAddons in relation to the tweet.

Kodi said they “have zero respect for anyone as they are bunch of lying weasels”, referring to the group behind the online Kodi add-on library.

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TVAddons, who have more than 14,000 followers on the site, responded: “We respect @KodiTV and all of our users, sucks that you'd kick us while we're down.

“If we lose in court, repercussions will affect you too.”

“We dearly hope you loose in court!,” Kodi, who have a much larger following of 157,000 on Twitter, replied.

US broadcaster Dish Network filed a copyright infringement complaint at the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas earlier this summer to stop "unlawful retransmissions of television channels exclusively licensed to Dish throughout the US”.
 

A spokesperson for Dish Network told Express.co.uk, “DISH is very supportive of innovation like Kodi and legal streaming services.

"The suit does not target individual end users, rather it seeks to stop a very specific add-on that supplied pirated content.

"We feel obligated to raise awareness about content that users may not realise is pirated, while also supporting our programming partners who work to create and supply content legally.

"We remain committed to combatting piracy and ensuring consumers have reliable, affordable options to access the content they enjoy."

The developers behind TVAddons, who are based in Canada and London, refute the claims.

The Texas District Court previously granted subpoenas to enable Dish Network to request information from the defendants’ accounts on online sites including Amazon, Github, Google, Twitter, Facebook and PayPal.

This is believed to have helped with the identification of the individuals behind the software.

Piracy blog TorrentFreak spoke to a representative from TVAddons, who refutes the copyright infringement allegations.

According to the blog, TVAddons sees itself as a platform for user-generated content and cites the DMCA’s safe harbour as a defence.

“TV ADDONS is not a piracy site, it’s a platform for developers of open source add-ons for the Kodi media centre,” the representative stipulated.

“As a community platform filled with user-generated content, we have always acted in accordance with the law and swiftly complied whenever we received a DMCA takedown notice”

The news comes after research by FACT revealed that there are now one million Kodi Boxes in use across the UK.

The FACT research was conducted in association with the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit, Intellectual Property Office, Police Scotland, and anti-piracy outfit Entura International.

It estimated that up to 25 per cent of the online viewing public access content illegally online.

According to the FACT report, the UK is one of the countries most affected by the increasing demand for Kodi boxes.

Those supplying the Kodi Boxes range from individuals building boxes for a select few friends and family, to sprawling organised crime networks.

There has been a steady stream of reports of individuals who have been arrested for selling these devices, however, FACT claims these are just the "tip of the iceberg".