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An EU court has ruled using a "fully loaded" Kodi streaming boxes is illegal.
In a landmark ruling on Wednesday (April 26), the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that streaming pirated video content is as bad as downloading it.
The court stated that the temporary reproduction of a copyright-protected work, obtained without the consent of the copyright holder, is NOT exempt from the "right of reproduction".
The law around downloading pirated copies of your favourite TV shows and films has long been clear but the legality of streaming content has been a bit of a grey area.
This was because when you stream something online the file is only temporarily stored on your computer, and the temporary copies have traditionally been exempt from copyright laws.
The right of reproduction states that no person other than the copyright owner can make any reproductions or copies of the work.
The ruling effectively means that anyone who streams an illegally copied film or TV show is breaking the law - just as they would be if they downloaded it.
The court explained that streaming this content "adversely affects the normal exploitation of those works and causes unreasonable prejudice to the legitimate interests of the copyright holders".
In other words, copyright owners are losing money because people are streaming content for free online, rather than paying for subscriptions.
The ruling is significant because it means the fact that streaming only generates temporary files is no longer a legitimate defence against charges of copyright infringement.
Streaming pirated content counts as a civil offence rather than criminal one, meaning you'll only get in trouble if the copyright holder decides to sue you, but it may change the way many people think about streaming.
In the UK, a lot of the focus has been on Kodi, a free media player that allows users to stream films and TV programmes over the internet.
Kodi itself is not illegal, nor is it illegal to sell devices with Kodi pre-installed on them, but many people now sell Kodi devices pre-loaded with third party plug-ins and add-ons that allow users to stream pirated content to their TV.
The Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) has launched a major crackdown on sales of these "fully loaded" boxes, along with several law enforcement authorities.
eBay and Amazon have both banned sales of the devices on their platforms and several distributors have been fined, or in some cases imprisoned.
Of course, this doesn't stop people from buying "clean" Kodi boxes, and then downloading the copyright infringing add-ons themselves.
Many people also download the Kodi media player onto other TV streaming devices - such as Google Chromecasts or Amazon Fire TV Sticks - and install the plug-ins from there.
The Premier League is taking a different approach, going after the sources of the illegal streams, rather than those selling fully loaded Kodi boxes.
It has secured a High Court order that allows it to shut down illegal video streams of football matches on Kodi by blocking access to the computer servers on which they are hosted.
Published by Somerset live Fully loaded Kodi streaming boxes ARE illegal, EU Court rules
In a landmark ruling on Wednesday (April 26), the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that streaming pirated video content is as bad as downloading it.
The court stated that the temporary reproduction of a copyright-protected work, obtained without the consent of the copyright holder, is NOT exempt from the "right of reproduction".
The law around downloading pirated copies of your favourite TV shows and films has long been clear but the legality of streaming content has been a bit of a grey area.
This was because when you stream something online the file is only temporarily stored on your computer, and the temporary copies have traditionally been exempt from copyright laws.
The right of reproduction states that no person other than the copyright owner can make any reproductions or copies of the work.
The ruling effectively means that anyone who streams an illegally copied film or TV show is breaking the law - just as they would be if they downloaded it.
The court explained that streaming this content "adversely affects the normal exploitation of those works and causes unreasonable prejudice to the legitimate interests of the copyright holders".
In other words, copyright owners are losing money because people are streaming content for free online, rather than paying for subscriptions.
The ruling is significant because it means the fact that streaming only generates temporary files is no longer a legitimate defence against charges of copyright infringement.
Streaming pirated content counts as a civil offence rather than criminal one, meaning you'll only get in trouble if the copyright holder decides to sue you, but it may change the way many people think about streaming.
In the UK, a lot of the focus has been on Kodi, a free media player that allows users to stream films and TV programmes over the internet.
Kodi itself is not illegal, nor is it illegal to sell devices with Kodi pre-installed on them, but many people now sell Kodi devices pre-loaded with third party plug-ins and add-ons that allow users to stream pirated content to their TV.
The Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) has launched a major crackdown on sales of these "fully loaded" boxes, along with several law enforcement authorities.
eBay and Amazon have both banned sales of the devices on their platforms and several distributors have been fined, or in some cases imprisoned.
Of course, this doesn't stop people from buying "clean" Kodi boxes, and then downloading the copyright infringing add-ons themselves.
Many people also download the Kodi media player onto other TV streaming devices - such as Google Chromecasts or Amazon Fire TV Sticks - and install the plug-ins from there.
The Premier League is taking a different approach, going after the sources of the illegal streams, rather than those selling fully loaded Kodi boxes.
It has secured a High Court order that allows it to shut down illegal video streams of football matches on Kodi by blocking access to the computer servers on which they are hosted.
Published by Somerset live Fully loaded Kodi streaming boxes ARE illegal, EU Court rules
