Kodi set-top boxes that allow football fans to stream live matches without a licence will be blocked by the UK's four biggest ISPs, after the High Court approved a piracy clampdown order.
Sky, BT, TalkTalk, and Virgin Media will all be required to block servers that stream Premier League football games.
"The new block will enable a proportionate and targeted restriction of content that would otherwise have been proliferated to unauthorised websites and IPTV devices," said the Premier League after it secured the court order from Mr Justice Arnold on Wednesday.
BT and Sky fling millions of pounds at footie matches to win exclusive rights to broadcast the games live. Earlier this week, BT Sport secured the exclusive rights to show UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League matches until 2021.
But broadcasters and the Premier League have been fretting about the rise of Kodi set-top boxes, which allow football fans to watch live streams of copyrighted material on their TVs without paying for a subscription.
The High Court granted the order to block the servers that stream the matches via the Kodi boxes under section 97a of the Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act.
"We will continue working with ISPs, government, and other sports content producers to protect consumers from illegitimate services that offer no recourse when services are removed, provide no parental controls and, in many instances, are provided by individuals involved in other criminal activity," the Premier League said.
Source: ArsTechnica
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by bob_super on Monday March 13 2017, @11:48PM (4 children)
Entitled generation?
I want it all (for free), I want it all (for free), I want it all (for free), and I want it now!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Tuesday March 14 2017, @12:17AM (3 children)
Like the availability and the price and the associated services/quality don't play a role in pushing someone into piracy [lifehacker.com.au], right?
(if you thing access to streaming live sports is different from access to streaming movies, think again)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Informative) by bob_super on Tuesday March 14 2017, @12:37AM (2 children)
I'm responding to "my free [pirate] stream went down"...
I'm quoting a singer who's been dead for 25 years...
I could push my tongue further through my cheek, but that'd be bloody and you wouldn't even see.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday March 14 2017, @01:17AM
You just Poe-d [wikipedia.org] yourself.
In today's post-truth world, with that many alt-facts, it doesn't seem wise to omit the smiley sign.
(I'm usually grin-ing [soylentnews.org] in such occasions; because I'm such an idiot that I cannot take the occasional - or is it pervasive? - stupidity of this world in a way relaxed enough to just smile at it. I admit, at times, it's a substitute for groaning)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 14 2017, @03:48AM
I suppose a proper response then would be an Oompa Loompa number.