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Law closes in on Kodi boxes as European court rules ‘fully loaded’ boxes are illegal
The law seems to be closing in on the highly popular Kodi box devices – customised TV boxes which allow users to access pirated material, for free.
A new ruling by the European Court of Justice has ruled that ‘fully loaded’ Kodi boxes (which have plug-ins which allow users to access pirated material) are illegal to sell.
Previously, the boxes existed in a grey area in Europe because content was streamed, rather than downloaded.
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But the European Court of Justice has found against a Dutch vendor (identified as Mr Willums) who sold the boxes over the internet.
Under the ruling, people selling devices which can be used to infringe copyright will be treated as if they have infringed copyright themselves.
Using Kodi software (which can be installed on smartphones or PCs) remains legal – it’s just installing add-ons to allow piracy which is the problem.
‘Fully loaded’ boxes come with add-ons which allow piracy of TV shows and premium football fixtures, and selling these breaches copyright laws, as does using them.
The boxes are already illegal to sell in the UK, and dealers have been arrested and fined.
So far, copyright holders have tended to ignore users, and instead target people who sell ‘fully loaded’ boxes with piracy add-ons pre-installed.
Users with Kodi boxes at home have not – so far – been targeted by the recent wave of arrests of dealers in ‘fully loaded’ boxes.
Amazon recently banned the sale of the boxes, saying in a statement, ‘Products offered for sale on Amazon should not promote, suggest the facilitation of, or actively enable the infringement of or unauthorised access to digital media or other protected content.
‘Any streaming media player or other device that violates this policy is prohibited from sale on Amazon.’
