Matrix Posted January 11, 2019 Share Posted January 11, 2019 CBS has requested TVAddons to remove three addons which can display their programming in the popular Kodi media player. TVAddons swiftly complied, but the site refuses to flag the developer under its repeat infringer policy, because it doesn't see the addons as infringing. The major entertainment industry companies are waging a war against illicit streaming devices, with Kodi add-ons at the center of attention. The Kodi software itself is perfectly legal, but many third-party add-ons complement it to offer access to pirated movies, TV-shows, and live-streaming. The addons in question can be found of a variety of sites and repositories. Some are blatantly offering pirated content, but it’s not always clear what’s permitted and what’s not. TVAddons, a popular repository of third-party Kodi addons, used to offer many problematic add-ons. This lead to lawsuits in both the US and Canada, after which the company cleaned up its site and tightened its policies. However, that doesn’t mean that rightsholders are happy with all content on the site. This week CBS sent a takedown notice to TVAddons through Incorporate Now, requesting the site to remove three allegedly infringing addons. The addons in question, developed by mhancoc7, offered access to live streams of CBS programming such as CBS News, CBS Sports, and Entertainment Tonight, without permission. One of the CBS Addons TVAddons never saw these Kodi addons as copyright infringements. However, CBS clearly disagrees. “We have a good faith belief that this material is not authorized by CBS, its agents or the law. Such copying and use of this material constitutes clear infringement of the CBS’s copyrights under the Copyright Act and its counterpart laws around the world,” the takedown notice reads. In addition, CBS also requested to count the infringements as strikes under TVAddons’ repeat infringer policy, and disable the developer’s account if appropriate. CBS’s takedown notice While TVAddons says that it doesn’t see the addons in question as infringing, it doesn’t want to pick a fight with CBS, so it complied with the removal request within an hour. Striking the developer goes a step too far though, TVAddons informed CBS. “However, do not feel that this merits any strikes on our repeat-infringer policy, as it was not copyright infringement. The script was simply scraping content from your own public web site,” a TVAddons representative replied. TVAddons reply TorrentFreak spoke to a TVAddons representative who notes that the add-ons accessed content that was made freely available by CBS through its official website. Therefore they don’t see it as infringing. “The only difference is that the user wouldn’t be exposed to 50 nonconsensual privacy violating trackers while using Kodi,” the TVAddons representative says. Whether these kinds of addons are copyright infringing is up to a court to decide. We expect that CBS wants to control where their content appears. Ideally, that’s through their official website, where they can monetize it. TVAddons has enough legal worries already, so it chose to comply despite its objections. The developer also removed the addons from GitHub. “We can’t afford to fight more lawsuits right now, so we had no choice but to comply even though we don’t necessarily agree with their assessment that it’s copyright infringement. It’s at most a trademark violation for using the CBS name in the add-on title,” TVAddons’ representative notes. This is the second takedown notice which resulted in add-ons being removed after the site relaunched two years ago. The first complaint came from Plex, which requested the removal of MK Plex, an unofficial Plex interface. TVAddons further banned more than a dozen addons and developers pre-emptively. Original Article. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBS has requested TVAddons to remove three addons which can display their programming in the popular Kodi media player. TVAddons swiftly complied, but the site refuses to flag the developer under its repeat infringer policy, because it doesn't see the addons as infringing. The major entertainment industry companies are waging a war against illicit streaming devices, with Kodi add-ons at the center of attention. The Kodi software itself is perfectly legal, but many third-party add-ons complement it to offer access to pirated movies, TV-shows, and live-streaming. The addons in question can be found of a variety of sites and repositories. Some are blatantly offering pirated content, but it’s not always clear what’s permitted and what’s not. TVAddons, a popular repository of third-party Kodi addons, used to offer many problematic add-ons. This lead to lawsuits in both the US and Canada, after which the company cleaned up its site and tightened its policies. However, that doesn’t mean that rightsholders are happy with all content on the site. This week CBS sent a takedown notice to TVAddons through Incorporate Now, requesting the site to remove three allegedly infringing addons. The addons in question, developed by mhancoc7, offered access to live streams of CBS programming such as CBS News, CBS Sports, and Entertainment Tonight, without permission. One of the CBS Addons TVAddons never saw these Kodi addons as copyright infringements. However, CBS clearly disagrees. “We have a good faith belief that this material is not authorized by CBS, its agents or the law. Such copying and use of this material constitutes clear infringement of the CBS’s copyrights under the Copyright Act and its counterpart laws around the world,” the takedown notice reads. In addition, CBS also requested to count the infringements as strikes under TVAddons’ repeat infringer policy, and disable the developer’s account if appropriate. CBS’s takedown notice While TVAddons says that it doesn’t see the addons in question as infringing, it doesn’t want to pick a fight with CBS, so it complied with the removal request within an hour. Striking the developer goes a step too far though, TVAddons informed CBS. “However, do not feel that this merits any strikes on our repeat-infringer policy, as it was not copyright infringement. The script was simply scraping content from your own public web site,” a TVAddons representative replied. TVAddons reply TorrentFreak spoke to a TVAddons representative who notes that the add-ons accessed content that was made freely available by CBS through its official website. Therefore they don’t see it as infringing. “The only difference is that the user wouldn’t be exposed to 50 nonconsensual privacy violating trackers while using Kodi,” the TVAddons representative says. Whether these kinds of addons are copyright infringing is up to a court to decide. We expect that CBS wants to control where their content appears. Ideally, that’s through their official website, where they can monetize it. TVAddons has enough legal worries already, so it chose to comply despite its objections. The developer also removed the addons from GitHub. “We can’t afford to fight more lawsuits right now, so we had no choice but to comply even though we don’t necessarily agree with their assessment that it’s copyright infringement. It’s at most a trademark violation for using the CBS name in the add-on title,” TVAddons’ representative notes. This is the second takedown notice which resulted in add-ons being removed after the site relaunched two years ago. The first complaint came from Plex, which requested the removal of MK Plex, an unofficial Plex interface. TVAddons further banned more than a dozen addons and developers pre-emptively.
steven36 Posted January 13, 2019 Share Posted January 13, 2019 Do TVA think they better than than Kodi .tv ? CBS don't allow no one to show there stuff on Kodi no more legally there one of the few network who enforces it .All that Adam Lackman Sock-puppet mhancoc7 does is copy other devs addons these addons were copies of Kodi .tv addons and Kodi.tv removed them about a year ago for the same reason. If they done some research before they released stuff they would of knew CBS was going to come after them. Thing about using Kodi .tv addon vs TVA so called legit addons is Kodi .tv does for a hobby and is open source when you use TVA addons they get paid for ads and stuff and some of there addons seem malicious and could infect you with malware so what they do is not really legal and its against open source. So stay away from TVA's stuff ! https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=328523 Now there are some not so legal addons were the devs that don't care about dmca that still works for CBS lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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