Are Kodi boxes illegal? Judge in landmark court case gives his verdict

[Len]

An English seller of 'fully loaded' set-top TV boxes has avoided jail in a landmark ruling which has caused futher confusion around British copyright law.

Middlesbrough trader Brian Thompson was raided by Trading Standards and law enforcement in 2015 following a complaint from the local council concerning his sale of so-called Kodi boxes.

Kodi itself is perfectly legal - it carries no content, but it can be customised with third-party add-ons to allow access to illegal streams including subscription content, live TV, sports, movies and TV shows.

These so-called 'fully loaded' Kodi boxes have been sold for a number of years and vendors willing to manipulate the software can make a hefty profit that consumers are more than willing to pay.

However, as the boxes do not host pirated content themselves but rather provide an access point, the legality of such boxes is still up for debate.

Between July 2015 and January 2016, Thompson sold fully loaded Kodi boxes through his company, Cutprice Tomo TVs, and made roughly £40,000.

The 54-year-old was charged with two criminal counts of selling devices "designed, produced or adapted for the purpose of enabling or facilitating the circumvention of effective technological measures."

According to this vague area of UK copyright law, originally intended to cover encryption standards, "a person commits an offence if he - in the course of a business - sells or lets for hire, any device, product or component which is primarily designed, produced, or adapted for the purpose of enabling or facilitating the circumvention of effective technological measures."

Thompson pleaded not guilty in the beginning, insisting that he simply wanted to know whether or not his operations were illegal.

However, Thompson later pleaded guilty to both charges.

This change of heart has potentially set the standard in the UK and answered the question of whether loaded Kodi boxes can be considered a way to commit piracy.

When Thompson appeared at Teeside Crown Court on Friday, he was given an 18-month prison term, suspended for two years.

As reported by Gazette Live, the judge in charge of the case, Judge Peter Armstrong said, "If anyone was under any illusion as to whether such devices as these, fully loaded Kodi boxes, were illegal or not, they can no longer be in any such doubt."

The sentence may be lenient but was likely considered as a way to answer the legality question while avoiding a lengthy court case and potential appeals.

Fully loaded Kodi boxes may now be deemed illegal as a product for sale in the UK.