Last Updated on September 26, 2024 by Rob Cashman
Kodi Add-ons that connect to bittorrent networks are reliably UNsafe.
I just finished drafting the article entitled, “Why Kodi users are being sued for copyright infringement.” The purpose of writing that article was to voice the real threat that Kodi Add-ons which connect to bittorrent networks can get users sued in federal court for copyright infringement.
REASON #1 – Bittorrent networks are already swarming with sly copyright trolls.
Bittorrent networks are generally bad news for pirates these days. There are already so many movie copyright trolls who are watching the bittorrent networks and are suing bittorrent users for copyright infringement, regardless of whether they actually did the download or not.
There are even conglomerates (groups) of copyright trolls which act together in unison. These “common troll” copyright enforcement entities include (2022 UPDATE: included [now defunct]) RIGHTS ENFORCEMENT (RIGHTSENFORCEMENT.COM) which [we understand] contact movie production studios and convince them to license the rights to enforce (think, “sue for copyright infringement”) the copyrights owned by the production company who made the failed movie.
If you view RIGHTSENFORCEMENT’s site (if they haven’t taken it down already because people like us exposed them) and you click on “clients,” you’ll see a huge list of movies which, if acquired via bittorrent, can get the downloader sued for copyright infringement. This list of movies is growing, and Growing, and GROWING. In sum, stay away from bittorrent like the plague. It is filled with those looking to sue for the unlawful download of their copyrighted films.
Copyright infringement is theft, but spineless copyright trolls and bad movie productions companies are slime.
As for the Kodi Add-ons: The reason I did not like writing the article “Why Kodi Add-ons users are being sued for copyright infringement,” was because while I do not condone, encourage, or cheer on those who violate the copyrights of others, I do have a “stake” in the copyright debate.
Violating copyright is theft, and while I believe that much of the fault of copyright infringement falls on the content producers 1) for making unoriginal junk that does not succeed in the theaters (I call these “floppers”), and 2) for not properly making their copyrighted content available for lawful movie watchers to gain access to the copyrighted content (e.g., think, HBO and the Game of Thrones issue). It is my opinion that many would-be pirates would happily pay for content if it was more readily available (which is why Netflix and Amazon Prime are so successful).
Legitimate Kodi Add-ons originally did not use bittorrent when streaming copyrighted content.
However, Kodi Add-ons and the concept of “whether an internet user can get caught streaming music or movies” has always been an interesting topic for me. The reason for this is very simple — from a legal perspective, Kodi Add-ons which use bittorrent (unbeknownst to you) can get you the downloader caught because your IP address is exposed in the download of the content.
Kodi Add-ons (when tweaked to allow piracy repositories) originally did not use bittorrent. Rather, they STREAMED content which was being held unlawfully on some server that the copyright holders had a difficult time shutting down based on the DMCA laws, and where those servers were located. In other words, Kodi presented a technology challenge to those copyright trolls who sought to sue downloaders for the unlawful download of their films.
REASON #2 – Now stealthy Kodi Add-ons use websites which expose your IP address with Google Analytics or Cloudfront.
A few months ago, I was intrigued by the PornHub lawsuits, where I discovered that by using a MPAA-friendly company such as Google, downloaders of even streamed music could get caught. I realized that copyright infringement lawsuits could be filed against internet users who STREAMED movie content, even though their viewing activities never touched a bittorrent network.
Kodi [when tweaked enabling Kodi Add-ons] was the vehicle which made this content available, and tracking companies such as Google Analytics or Cloudfront were the mechanism copyright holders could use to unmask the IP addresses of the downloaders accessing the copyrighted content.
Kodi Add-ons + Google Analytics (or more recently, Kodi Add-ons + Cloudfront) allowed copyright holders to bypass the bittorrent networks altogether, and this is why it was such a hot topic for me as a defense attorney. [Click to Tweet this!]
Thus, I wrote the article “why (with the assistance of Google Analytics or Cloudfront) a person CAN get sued streaming movies and copyrighted content,” (which exposed to me the future of copyright infringement lawsuits), and why even using Kodi on an Amazon Fire TV stick could get someone caught (even though this was a futuristic topic based on lawsuits that have not happened yet).
So can you understand why I think this article (Why You CAN Get Sued Using Kodi Add-ons) is such a “cheap” topic for me? Obviously a plug-in which uses bittorrent can get someone sued.
In sum, the “Why Kodi users are being sued for copyright infringement” article was not about getting caught using Kodi Add-ons or getting caught streaming; rather, it is why you can get caught using bittorrent. There is nothing new to share here — a Kodi lawsuit is identical to the bittorrent lawsuit, and it should be treated the same way.
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