Slashdot Mirror
Canada Federal Court Restrains Sale Of 'Pirate' Boxes (torrentfreak.com)
An anonymous reader writes:The Federal Court in Canada has handed down an interlocutory injunction against distributors of Android-based set-top boxes configured for piracy. The devices, which are loaded with software including Kodi (with pirate addons) and Showbox, are now banned from sale pending a full trial.Judge Daniele Tremblay-Lamer wrote in her order: "The devices marketed, sold and programmed by the Defendants enable consumers to obtain unauthorized access to content for which the Plaintiffs own the copyright. [...] They deliberately encourage consumers and potential clients to circumvent authorized ways of accessing content -- say, by a cable subscription or by streaming content from the Plaintiffs' websites -- both in the manner in which they promote their business, and by offering tutorials in how to add and use applications which rely on illegally obtained content."
The Kodi developers hate those plugins, because they only work for a few months then break. And then the users come and flood the Kodi forums complaining about it.
The Pirate Boxes are killing Kodi.
It's apparently getting so bad the Kodi dev team is considering quitting completely - they don't want to support this crap (especially since the pirate box sellers don't support them) and are forced to (i.e., Kodi is crap). So they're using legal avenues to do so - basically they've acquired a trademark so they can file trademark takedowns.