The websites of several Kodi repositories and add-ons were closed this week after legal action by a local anti-piracy group. Platform operators said they agreed to pay a settlement of thousands of Sheqel and face a big fine if they re-start their services.
The popularity of the software reproduction media Kodi, has grown exponentially in recent years, as many have started using it as their main source of entertainment, because often with the help of unofficial add-ons they can access endless pirated movies and TV shows.
While the Kodi software itself is perfectly legitimate, many third-party add-ons are not. In Israel, this led ZIRA's anti-piracy local anti-piracy squad to take action against many popular addicts and the repositories they used to promote pirated films in Kodi.
Last week, the anti-piracy team ordered the Kodi pirate to stop pirating, but before filing lawsuits, the group said they had already signed an agreement with three of the add-ons developers.
A few days ago, abeksis.com, kodiwizardil.net and kodi-senyor.co.il went down without warning, according to Torrentfreak. It is worth mentioning that the Abeksis repository was one of the main targets of the anti-piracy group, as it turned Kodi into centre piracy.
The Kodi repos and add-ons that stopped working seem to have preferred to do so voluntarily rather than be driven to court for piracy.
ZIRA is reportedly pleased with the result and notes that the termination of these services is "another victory in the fight against pirated Internet content."
On the other hand, the owners of repos and add-ons are reportedly paying with a settlement a few thousand Sheqel. You will also have to pay 100.000 Sheqel (around 28.000 dollars) if they restart their services at some point.
As a warning to the public, the three sites in question replaced the content that appeared to date with a ZIRA message. The message informs visitors about the closure of the services due to piracy.
"The site was removed because it violated copyright. The site operators were fined by the court and therefore the site stopped working!
The cost of copyright infringement is borne by the Israeli people, Israeli culture and the income of content creators. "
