US satellite broadcaster Dish Network filed a lawsuit against two of well-known Kodi add-ons: on ZemTV and the TVAddons.ag, The complaint accuses ZemTV of direct copyright infringement by various TV channels and TVAddons of distributing pirated material through add-ons.
Let us mention that the lawsuits were not accidental, as more and more use Kodi decoders for streaming pirate content on their televisions.
The Kodi app is a completely legitimate platform, but third-party add-ons can turn it into an ultimate piracy machine, providing access to Movies, TV shows and IPTV channels.
These add-ons are direct competition for traditional broadcasters, such as Dish Network in the United States, which filed a federal lawsuit court of Texas last week.
The complaint lists the additional ZemTV as the main target, as this service allows users to watch a variety of satellite channels without permission.
"The ZemTV service rebroadcasts the channels over the Internet to end users who download the ZemTV add-on for Kodi media player, which is available for download at www.tvaddons.ag and www.tvaddons.org," the lawyers sayterms by Dish.
The TVAddons platform, which hosts hundreds of unofficial Kodi add-ons including ZemTV, is also referred to as a defendant. According to Dish, TVAddons plays an important role in distributing illegal content.
Probably will not be surprising if TVAddons is forced to start removing add-ons due to legal threats. Let us mention that the lawsuit against ZemTV and TVAddons is the first of its kind in the United States.
This is probably more closely monitored by other copyright owners, add-on developers and TVAddons platforms.