Matrix Posted August 12, 2018 Share Posted August 12, 2018 A Dutch-based developer and Kodi addon repository administrator has shut down his operation following threats from anti-piracy outfit BREIN. Due to the XvBMC-NL repo offering addons including Covenant and IPTV Bonanza, BREIN accused its operator of facilitating access to infringing content. He is now required to sign an abstention agreement and pay a settlement of 2,500 euros. As the battle to prevent unauthorized content getting into the hands of the masses continues, Kodi remains one of the leading platforms for such consumption. Completely legal as it leaves its official download platform, the Kodi software is easily modified to provide access to pirated movies, TV shows, and live sports. From here on in, usage of such a setup to infringe copyright is illegal in Europe. With this established, anti-piracy outfit BREIN has been attempting to stem the tide of platforms offering ‘pirate’ addons in the Netherlands. One of those was XvBMC-NL, a repository which contained addons including the hugely popular Covenant and live TV addon IPTV Bonanza. According to a report by BREIN, last month the Dutch developer and administrator of XvBMC-NL received an unwelcome visit to his home by bailiffs sent by the anti-piracy group. BREIN hasn’t made the precise contents of its message to ‘Z’ known but it’s clear that it views his work as illegal and contrary to copyright law. The developer shut down soon after. Convenant as offered by XvBMC “At the end of July, the Dutch developer/administrator Z stopped his Kodi repository XvBMC-NL after the bailiff delivered a summons from BREIN to his home address,” BREIN explains. “The Facebook and Github sites [relating to XvBMC-NL] state that the closure is ‘on the order of BREIN’. The administrator made an infringement because his repository contained add-ons with access to illegal offerings of films, series, pay channels (including IPTV Bonanza and Covenant) and music.” At the time of writing, XvBMC-NL’s Facebook page is down and its Github repository carries no mention of BREIN. “‘XvBMC Netherlands’ has decided to shut down this page and lock it (as of 26-07-2018). Also the ‘XvBMC Repository’ is also offline, or emptied so that it will no longer be usable,” it reads. “The ‘repo’ will only be retained to prevent hijacking in and under our name, in order to prevent possible abuses.” IPTV Bonanza While there is no mention of BREIN now, that hasn’t always been the case. According to a cached copy obtained from Google, the repository’s Github page previously indicated it had been shut down following BREIN action. Many addon developers and operators of repositories insist that what they do is legal. They do not place any illegal content online themselves and do not take part in the actual transfer of illegal content among their users. It’s a stance previously taken by XvBMC-NL but not one that stands up when faced with more recent rulings handed down by Europe’s highest court, BREIN notes. “The Court of Justice of the EU ruled in its Filmspeler judgment of 26 April 2017 that the provision of pre-programmed software, such as Kodi with add-ons, infringes copyright if it provides access to unauthorized sources on the Internet,” BREIN writes. “This was the case with the XvBMC repository through add-ons with links to illegal streams and channels. Due to his management of the repository, the manager was aware of this.” Supplying addons in the knowledge that they provide access to illicit content is an important piece of the puzzle but as BREIN points out, under EU law the addons themselves are also infringing. “The add-ons for the illegal sources are directly infringing and the offer of those add-ons is also directly infringing, i.e it is considered to be unauthorized making available of copyrighted works. This applies not only to the sale of media boxes with illegal add-ons but also to the illegal add-ons themselves and their offerings even without a media box,” BREIN notes. While XvBMC now appears to be non-operational, BREIN isn’t quite done yet. The anti-piracy group wants ‘Z’ to sign an abstention agreement (with penalties for breaches) and pay a cash settlement of 2,500 euros. If this compromise can’t be reached, BREIN says it will launch legal proceedings against ‘Z’ with a view to recovering all of its costs. Source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted August 12, 2018 Share Posted August 12, 2018 That NL repo was located on Github i never used it anymore because it was full of old outdated addons, Covenant is a dead addon it's not been updated since 2017 when the devs got a C&D letter there are much better updated forks of it so nothing lost there and IPTV Bonanza is and old addon as well that not been updated in along time and was not there addon ether and it can be found in another repo . its best to not use Super Repos like XvBMC sometime they have bad addons in them that have been bumped up to overwrite legit addons from Kodi.tv if you have auto updates on . They really didn't do nothing but help the community out by getting rid of that trash repo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skunk1966 Posted August 12, 2018 Share Posted August 12, 2018 @steven36 which one would you advise to use? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted August 12, 2018 Share Posted August 12, 2018 9 minutes ago, Skunk1966 said: @steven36 which one would you advise to use? What are you looking to do it depends on what you want to do ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skunk1966 Posted August 12, 2018 Share Posted August 12, 2018 watch TV channels, movies, sports and streams Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted August 12, 2018 Share Posted August 12, 2018 13 minutes ago, Skunk1966 said: watch TV channels, movies and streams Free Live TV on KODI is not that good everyone recommends you buy it , For streaming try Blamo repo i dont most of the time talk about how to set up Kodi much on this site like i do others because they stop posting addons and things here a few years ago . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skunk1966 Posted August 12, 2018 Share Posted August 12, 2018 2 minutes ago, steven36 said: Free Live TV on KODI is not that good everyone recommends you buy it , For streaming try Blamo repo i dont most of the time talk about how to set up Kodi much on this site like i do others because they stop posting addons and things here a few years ago . Just looking for options to use that's all? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted August 12, 2018 Share Posted August 12, 2018 7 minutes ago, Skunk1966 said: Just looking for options to use that's all? Well Mr Blamo. he does a good job at keeping his addons updated, he has some of everything even live tv , another guy i know he fixing to come out with a new addon that's going to rock the Kodi world . Some other stuff i use for torrents is kind of complicated to set up and addons work better for me than they do free users because i pay for a leecher . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skunk1966 Posted August 12, 2018 Share Posted August 12, 2018 1 minute ago, steven36 said: Well Mr Blamo. he does a good job at keeping his addons updated he some of everything even live tv , another guy i know he fixing o come out with a new addon that's going to rock the Kodi world . Some other stuff i use for torrents is kind of complicated to set up and addons work better for me than they do free users because i pay for a leecher . you got me curious! If you're willing to share more info please pm me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted August 12, 2018 Share Posted August 12, 2018 11 minutes ago, Skunk1966 said: you got me curious! If you're willing to share more info please pm me Sure ill pm you more info if you would like Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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