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According to TorrentFreak (TF) entertainment coalitions such as the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) are continuing to threaten developers of Kodi addons:
The MPA, Netflix, Amazon, and dozens of other content companies are ramping up the pressure on a third-party Kodi addon developer. Last year, JSergio123 was warned by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment to cease his activities and sign a confidential settlement agreement. He did not and now he's coming under pressure to comply. But what are ACE's demands?
[...] JSergio123's reluctance to sign an agreement with ACE hasn't gone unnoticed by the anti-piracy group. In a letter dated March 5, 2018 and signed by Kelly Klaus of US-based lawfirm Munger, Tolles & Olson, the developer is reminded of what transpired last year and what is expected of him moving forward.
"I understand that ACE counsel have discussed with you various of your "Addon" software applications and related software and services, including URLResolver (collectively, the "[redacted] Addons") and other actions you have undertaken to induce and contribute to the mass infringement of the ACE members' copyrighted works," Klaus writes. "I also understand that ACE counsel have provided you with a proposed settlement agreement, pursuant to which you would end your infringing activities and provide cooperation and other consideration in exchange for ACE agreeing not to pursue legal action against you arising out of your infringing activities. To date, you have not signed the settlement agreement."
JSergio123's precise reasons for not signing the settlement agreement aren't being made public. However, TorrentFreak understands that some of the terms presented to addon developers last year have caused considerable concern. In some cases they are difficult to meet, not to mention unpalatable to the people involved. They include promises to ensure that specified addons and indeed any developed in the future can no longer infringe copyright. For those that scrape third-party sources, this could prove impossible to absolutely guarantee. This could effectively put developers out of the addon game – legitimate or otherwise – for good. TF is also informed that ACE demanded a high-level of cooperation, including that the developers should supply what amounts to a full confession, detailing all the projects they've been involved in, past and present.
Meanwhile, Dish Network is continuing to pursue a lawsuit against TVAddons and ZemTV.
Related: MPAA Chief Focuses Attention on the Kodi Platform
Kodi Panic in the UK and Popularity in North America
Kodi Add-on Library "TVAddons" Disappears After Lawsuit
Hollywood Strikes Back Against Illegal Streaming Kodi Add-Ons
Kodi Returns to its Roots With an Xbox One Release
Two New Lawsuits Against Makers of "Pirate Streaming Devices"
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Thursday March 08 2018, @10:45PM (1 child)
I suggest copyright and DRM are big issues precisely *because* no one dies if you "infringe".
As a result, it is hard to get "the masses" to care, until it is someone they know or something in which they, as an individual, get caught up.
When a person is eatened, they, and their friends become aware of the scale of the injustice/non relative threats compared to act.
Otherwise, meh, my torrenting.
Worse, the rigts holders do such a good job of the demonising that the people targeted are understood by the masses (even those that torrent) to be "really bad guys", who "deserve punishment".
Itis all a PR game, and the developers/ hackers / geeks are losing.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 09 2018, @03:00AM
> As a result, it is hard to get "the masses" to care, until it is someone they know or something in which they, as an individual, get caught up.
DRM also gets phased in gradually a little step at a tiime to prevent pushback, as we see in the Vulkan 1.1 spec, the UEFI spec , and the HTML5 spec. "no one" cares about specs. So DRM gets established there first to little resistence. Then comes a requirement for optional support, then mandatory support, then optional compliance, then mandatory compliance:
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/03/07/2031207 [soylentnews.org]
http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/UEFI [techrights.org]
https://www.techdirt.com/blog/?tag=eme [techdirt.com]
Computers that just anyone can program and a net where just anyone can publish rub very many powerful people and institutions the wrong way. They have been looking for decades for a way to roll back the world to a cnetralized, top-down broadcast model like with oldmedia.
In the 80s, most PCs had a programming environment available within a fraction of a second of flipping the power on. Now look at the barriers in place before you can even get started even with training languagres like Python. Look also at how oldmedia has been grinding away at the term 'hacker'. Mention 'hacking' to most people now and they'll get all upset and start asking about legality.
Besides, most of the public is already locked into Facebook. There they can be monitored in detail and rounded up at a later time when deemed expedient:
https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2017/02/08/police-mine-facebook-for-data-on-inauguration-protesters/ [sophos.com]
These are not sheep. Sheep have at least the protection of the flock. We're looking at hamster-like behavior and intelligence.