Kodi Security Risk Emerges After TVAddons Shutdown
From : torrentfreak
Three domains previously operated by defunct Kodi addons site TVAddons have been transferred to a law firm in Canada.
Security implications cannot be ignored.
According to a Kodi Project Manager, a third party in control of these domains could potentially do whatever they wanted to vulnerable former TVAddons users.
Kodi Turmoil Continues as TVAddons Disappears
TVAddons, the leading library for unofficial Kodi add-ons, has mysteriously disappeared. The site’s domain names have become unresponsive after the DNS entries were removed. It’s unclear why these drastic actions were taken, but since TVAddons was sued last week, some fear the worst.
Last week third-party Kodi add-on ZemTV and the TVAddons library were being sued in a federal court in Texas.
Since then, the ‘pirate’ Kodi community has been in turmoil. Several popular Kodi addons decided to shut down, and now TVAddons itself appears to be in trouble as well.
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Facebook has updated its Commerce Policy to include a ban on “products or items” that facilitate or encourage unauthorized access to digital media. The new rule has almost certainly been put in place to stop the further spread of “fully loaded” set-top devices running modified Kodi and similar software.
Often given the broad title of ‘Kodi Boxes’ after the legal open source software that commonly comes pre-installed, these devices are regularly configured for piracy with the aid of third-party addons.
Kodi Addon Navi-X Ends After 10 Years
NaviX, one of the oldest and most popular Kodi addons, is being shut down.
For over 10 years, Navi-X, was the go-to addon on Kodi.
NaviX will be discontinued due to legal fears, spam, and pollution with mislabeled adult content.
Navi-X began life ten years ago in 2007. Developed by Netherlands-based coder ‘Rodejo’, it debuted on XBMC (Kodi’s previous name) on the original XBoX.
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Amazon is taking a tough stance against vendors who sell fully-loaded Kodi boxes through its platform. The store now explicitly bans media players that “promote” or “suggest” the facilitation of piracy. Sellers who violate this policy, of which there are still a few around, risk having their inventory destroyed.
Streaming piracy is on the rise with popular media player Kodi at the center of attention.
While Kodi itself is a neutral platform, millions of people use third-party add-ons to turn it into the ultimate pirate machine.
In some cases, the pirate add-ons are put onto the devices by vendors, who sell these “fully-loaded” boxes through their own stores or marketplaces such as Amazon. While Amazon has never explicitly allowed the sale of copyright-infringing devices, they are not hard to find in its store.
High Court approves Premier League crackdown on Kodi streaming piracy
Football fans who watch live matches for free via popular Kodi set-top boxes face a crackdown after the High Court approved a Premier League effort to shut down unlicensed streams online.
Mr Justice Arnold approved an order for Britain’s top four broadband providers BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media to block connections to the servers that host pirated streams of matches.
The Premier League is acting with the support of Sky and BT, which each pay millions for every match they broadcast and fear the popularity of Kodi boxes is eroding the value of their spending on exclusive rights. The rivals are paying a total of £5.1bn over three years to show top-flight domestic matches.
Man gets £250k fine for selling ‘fully loaded’ Kodi boxes to pubs in the Uk
A MILLIONAIRE businessman who sold illegal digital television boxes has narrowly avoided jail.
Malcolm Mayes, a 65 year old from Hartlepool, who spends much of his time in Spain after moving there in 2001 running various businesses, pleaded guilty at Teesside Crown Court to two charges and was given two ten-month prison sentence suspended for 12 months to run concurrently, and was ordered to pay £170,000 legal costs to Hartlepool Borough Council and an £80,000 confiscation order.
Mr Mayes admitted selling devices designed, produced or adapted for the purpose of enabling or facilitating the circumvention of effective technological measures between March 1, 2012 and November 30, 2014 and advertising for sale such devices between January 1 and November 30, 2014.
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Five people have been arrested, accused of selling set-top boxes modified to stream subscription football matches, television channels and films for free.
The sale of so-called “fully loaded Kodi boxes” has been called a “top priority” by the Federation Against Copyright Theft (Fact).
The five traders were arrested in early morning raids.
Fact said it believed the suspects had made in the region of £250,000 selling the devices online.
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UK Police Arrest For Selling ‘Pirate’ Kodi Devices
A man who sold devices containing piracy-enabled custom builds of Kodi has been arrested in the UK. The 32-year-old company director from Norfolk was detained by police last week.
Set-top Android devices loaded with Kodi and third-party addons have become the next big thing. When configured in the correct manner, these devices offer free content, including live TV, all the latest movies, PPVs and much more. People can easily set them up themselves, but others would rather pay someone else to do the work for them.
As a result, a whole cottage industry has sprung up in the UK, with people programming Firesticks and similar platforms to receive pirate content and selling them via eBay, Amazon, local papers and Facebook. They usually get sold for about double the price of the basic hardware but plenty of people manage to make more than £100 profit per device.
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Selling media players with pirate add-ons violates EU law, according to a recommendation from Advocate General Campos Sánchez-Bordona.
He issued the advice in a landmark case over the legality of pre-loaded XBMC/Kodi devices, which are widely sold across Europe. Whether users of these players also liable depends on whether they know that the content is infringing.
Particularly popular are Kodi-powered applications or set-top boxes. While Kodi itself is a neutral platform, there are lots of add-ons available that turn it into a pirate’s heaven.
Are Kodi TV Addons going to be a victim of their own success?
Million of people use Kodi as their main source of entertainment, often with help from add-ons that allow them to access pirated movies and TV-shows. While these tools are a blessing for many, the streaming cyberlockers that provide the videos see the add-ons as a major threat to their business.
While Kodi itself is a neutral platform, millions of people use third-party add- ons to turn it into the ultimate pirate machine.
TVAddons is a leading player in this field. Over the past year alone, the add-on repository has seen the number of unique users double. However, not everyone is happy with the service.
Viewing figures for Sky Sports’ live Premier League matches have dropped by 19 per cent this season.
Despite already having aired headline clashes such as the Manchester derby, Arsenal vs Liverpool and Chelsea vs Liverpool this season, Sky Sports has seen viewers drop by nearly a fifth on last season.
Trader in UK first to be prosecuted for selling Fully Loaded Android Kodi boxes.
A trader selling boxes which allow viewers to watch copyright material for free is set to be the first in the UK to face prosecution.
The trader, from Middlesborough, has been told Middlesbrough Council is taking him to court following an 18-month investigation in what could prove a landmark case.
The kit – also known as a ‘Kodi box’ – allows viewers to watch programming like Premier League football and Hollywood movies for free.
Police in Scotland say they are conducting the world’s biggest ‘pirate box’ crackdown. Together with the Federation Against Copyright Theft, police are targeting sellers of Android-style set-top boxes and believe that thousands of pubs could be customers. In addition, three torrent sites have been closed down.
There are several types around but the most common have Android under the hood. Typically in small set-top or dongle format, these products can be loaded with media software from Google’s Play Store or invariably “side-loaded” with more unofficial products such as customized versions of Kodi, Showbox and Popcorn Time.
A shortage of Android developers among the Kodi team is putting the future of Kodi on Android and the Fire TV in jeopardy.
In a blog post, Nathan Betzen, president of the XBMC Foundation and a project manager on Kodi, put a call out for Android developers, stating “we can’t stress this enough, if we don’t get an Android dev soon, Kodi for Android could very well die out. This is a significant future problem.”
Other than code being contributed back into Kodi by the developers of SPMC and MrMC, there is currently no one working on the Android version of Kodi.
“Kodi on Android is on life support.”