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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."
Honestly, I'd prefer it if they just came set up with Kodi and no add-ons. Configuring Exodus or Spectro is simple enough and most of the add-ons I do not need pre-installed.
The things are putting a negative slant on Android, as if it's a platform for piracy. Hell, I'd say a good chunk of people with "Android boxes" have no idea what it's even doing. I actually appreciate taking these things out of the hands of noobs.
As an avid Kodi user I know the developers of Kodi do not encourage piracy. They forbid the use of their name on any install that deviates from the defaults (sort of like the Firefox license) when offering a device for sale - you must fork. Plugins that make infringement easy aren't even allowed in the official repositories - all of those are in 3rd party repositories.
Kodi is a lot like a torrent or gnutella setup. Nothing wrong with it on it's own, in fact Window Media Center is one of the best closed source comparison products to come to mind, but it's an open source project without child safety locks, just like Linux and BSD are as a whole. The fact third party sellers about the product should not be used against the developers - ever.
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You can find someone selling these boxes in almost any low-rend strip mall around here, there's one up the street from me. The content is all ripped, and they sell a "service" consisting of lists of IP numbers for the latest streams. I'm surprised the networks didn't get on this ages ago. I'm not sure stopping the box sales will help, they'll have to stop sales of the content lists too.
While action like this is good legally, I can almost guarantee that it won't change much. I see cunning fellas sell boxes that are benign, so do not flout the order.
What will happen is buyers being pointed to a website, from which a script to autoconfigure the box can be [freely] obtained.
I applaud the judge nevertheless..
but yes, the purpose of these things seem to be to bring piracy to the masses who could never figure it out on their own.
Had someone at work brag about their box and all their content.
I think the key thing here isn't so much the box itself, it is the legitimacy of it. There are probably a big chunk of people who get these boxes and think it is completely legit. Now one can argue about the nuances of copyright infringement all day, however at best these things are dubiously legal. At least when someone does it that knows what they are doing, they more less understand what it is they are really doing and are getting. For Ma and Pa android box owner, they may not have the same background to really understand what is going on other than "Hey pretty pictures!"
So not only, as you say, someone has to pay for content, but there is also the issues on the box owner getting into legal trouble without being really aware (heading off a lot of lawsuits before they start), and from the content owner if something like this becomes legitimate use, it undermines their ability to do anything about it if they ignore it.
It's about as close to a victimless crime as you can get
So using a product someone took the time, energy and money to produce and not paying them isn't a crime? I'm presuming your employer doesn't pay you for the work you do for them.
Most things I pirate are things I wouldn't have spent any hard earned cash for.
So it's your hard earned cash but not the guy who's trying to make their own hard earned cash you're stealing from. Nice to know you're the classic example of a hypocrite.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
To discourage and punish widescale commercial (for profit) copyright infringement. It's an abuse of the legal system to take those same laws made to combat commercial enterprises profiting to the tune of tens of thousands or even millions of dollars, and apply them to individuals violating copyright to watch a few movies for free. The penalty in the latter case badly needs to be revised to something like 3x the cost of the movie(s).
And why does this have a DMCA tag? The DMCA is a U.S. law, and this story is about a Canadian court decision.
Three words: Mickey Mouse Extension.
Ever since that one was signed into law, I've tried very hard to avoid ever paying for the items that benefited from this copyright. I pay for software (as needed). I never pay for music, movies or books unless I buy directly from the author to support him or her. Which is pretty rare.
Roll back copyright to something more reasonable and I'll start paying again.
Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
I was rather shocked to see a YouTuber I had respected (Darbin Orvar) do a video shilling for one of these boxes and posting an Amazon referral link in her comment section. Considering she used to work at Facebook I figured she would be intelligent enough to realize the "free movies" including such recent films as "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" were nothing more than illegal streaming sites with an RSS feed or similar feeding the poorly designed Android app on the box. Suckers born every minute, I guess.
-==- Buy a Mac and leave me alone!