Hollywood studios seek harsher criminal sentences for Kodi pirates

[Len]

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has called for tougher criminal sentences to be handed to pirates, in order to combat the spread of “fully loaded” Kodi boxes.

It urged the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) in the US to come down hard on users and sellers of illicit streaming devices, as well as creators of illegal Kodi addons.

“Combatting the growth of streaming piracy requires coordination among all parties in a position to make a difference, including… civil and criminal actions against creators of pirate add-on software and the repository web sites that host them, against distributors of the preloaded devices, and against the entities streaming the content,” the MPAA wrote this week.

It’s no secret that streaming devices pre-loaded with pirate addons have made it much easier to illegally access TV shows, films and live sports, but the MPAA also argues that Kodi boxes represent “a growing threat to consumers and a new vulnerability to cybersecurity, offering another reason for the NTIA to get involved”.

The answer? Tougher sentences for pirates, according to the MPAA, which counts Hollywood studios 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Universal Studios, Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros. as its members.

“While the civil suits brought by the private sector are impactful, criminal actions by the federal government have a larger deterrent value, and thus would be even more effective at mitigating the problem,” it added.

“Although not a streaming device case, the federal government’s criminal action against Megaupload, then the largest piracy “cyberlocker,” accounting for 4 percent of all Internet traffic, prompted many other pirate operations to shutter, and resulted in an 6.5 to 8.5 percent increase in digital sales for three major studios in 12 countries.

“We would expect similar results were the government to become more active in the fight against streaming devices.”