A couple of months ago in April, the European Court of Justice ruled that the sale of media boxes that are pre-configured for piracy is illegal. These media boxes typically come pre-loaded with Kodi, a media center application that has plenty of legitimate uses, but can also be used for piracy by installing third-party add-ons.
Until now, law enforcement has only targeted those that distribute set-top boxes that are pre-loaded with these add-ons, and the developers of the add-ons themselves. According to Kieron Sharp, the chief executive of the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) in the UK (via The Independent), law enforcement may begin cracking down on the end user.
It would seem that FACT is only planning on going after some end users though (for now) - those who purchased boxes that are pre-configured with the illegal add-ons. After law enforcement raids a seller, it will be able to check who the boxes have been sold to.
Unfortunately, it's still not easy to tell who is using Kodi legally and who is not, which is why users who installed the add-ons themselves are relatively safe for now. In short, there's no paper trail.
But perhaps no one is more frustrated with the misappropriated use of Kodi than the developer of the app, the XBMC Foundation. The media center application was built with the best intentions, but it's becoming increasingly popular as a tool for piracy and it's gaining a reputation for just that. The Foundation has said that it's considering enabling low-level DRM support in the app to promote legitimate usage.
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