At the end of July, the Dutch developer/manager Z ceased his Kodi repository XvBMC-NL after the bailiff served a summons from Brein.
On the Facebook and Github pages of the developers, it know states that the closure takes place “by order of Brein”. The administrator committed an infringement because his repository contained add-ons with access to illegal offerings of films, series, payment channels (including IPTV Bonanza and Covenant) and music.
Kodi (formerly XBMC) is an open source software-based media player that can run on different platforms. The software in itself is not intended to be used for infringing offers. Third parties do, however, provide add-ons that give access to illegal sources of films, series, payment channels and music. Such add-ons are offered in collections (repositories) that are kept up to date by an administrator so that everything works.
The Court of Justice of the EU ruled in its film player judgment of 26 April 2017 that the provision of pre-programmed software, such as Kodi with add-ons, infringes when it gives access to unauthorised sources on the Internet. This was the case with the XvBMC repository by means of add-ons with links to illegal streams and channels. Because of his management of the repository, the administrator was aware of this. Moreover, another Dutch developer/manager of the repository (of O) had already ceased his involvement at the end of 2017, Z. whose identity had not yet been established at the time, but continued to be so thereafter.
He wrongly stated on his Facebook page “we (XvBMC-NL) have never made films, TV series and music available to ZELF without permission”. The add-ons for the illegal sources are directly infringing and also the offer of those add-ons is directly infringing, i.e. it is considered unauthorised to make the copyrighted works available. This applies not only to the sale of media boxes with illegal add-ons, but also to the illegal add-ons themselves and their supply without a media box.
In addition to the immediate closure of the sites, Brein is demanding the signing of a statement of abstention with a penalty payment for the future and has offered a settlement of 2,500 euros. Failing this, Brein will issue a summons in legal proceedings, the full costs of which will be recovered from the infringer.
