Is Kodi legal? The EU has already weighed in on the debate surrounding so-called 'fully loaded' Android set-top boxes, and now the UK government has passed the Digital Economy Act into law, meaning illegally watching copyrighted content via Kodi and similar platforms could land users up to 10 years in prison. Here's what you should know before you get your sideload on.
Hark back to April 2016 and Kodi was still a relatively niche piece of media streaming software, beloved by HTPC (Home Theatre PC) enthusiasts and cord cutters, but still largely a mystery to a masses.
Jump to 2017 and the Platform Formerly Known as XBMC is hitting the headlines virtually every day, with the likes of Amazon, eBay and the Premier League joining the fight to stop dodgy streaming via cheap Android TV boxes.
Indeed, as of May 3 2017, the maximum prison sentence for illegally streaming copyrighted media has soared from two years to 10, after the UK government passed the controversial Digital Economy Act into law.
Many are sceptical that end users will feel the full force of the law in this regard, but at this stage, we wouldn't care to risk it – the EU is now also among the growing list of influential Kodi critics.
On Wednesday April 26, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) appears to have hammered another nail in the platform's coffin, effectively banning the sale of 'fully loaded' Kodi boxes by way of a lengthy ruling.
In a detailed statement (H/T TorrentFreak), the ECJ deemed that copyright law, "must be interpreted as covering the sale of a multimedia player, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, on which there are pre-installed add-ons, available on the internet, containing hyperlinks to websites — that are freely accessible to the public — on which copyright-protected works have been made available to the public without the consent of the right holders."
In plain English, that means that Android TV boxes shipping with with both Kodi and pre-installed third-party add-ons that provide easy acccess to pirated content fall foul of the law.
Furthermore, it adds that previous exceptions to EU copyright law covering "acts of temporary reproduction, on a multimedia player" fails to "satisfy the conditions set out in those provisions."
This is a key point, as it means that the fact streaming doesn't result in the creation of physical copies of rights protected content is no longer a legitimate defense against charges of copyright infringement.
Recently, Amazon and eBay have both announced plans to ban the sale of 'fully loaded' Android TV boxes on their marketplaces, while the Premier League has thrown is considerable financial clout behind legal efforts to thwart pirate sport streams.
However, while these so-called 'fully loaded' Kodi boxes are clearly in the dock, it's important to note that Kodi's core open-source media streaming software has yet to be indicted.
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