If your favourite Kodi add-ons include Phoenix, ZemTV or any other add-ons delivering pay TV content without the pay bit, they’ve likely closed down because they’re running from The Man.
More than 20 popular Kodi add-ons have shut down in the past week, the chilling effect of a lawsuit instigated by US satellite television company Dish Network. Dish launched a lawsuit against ZemTV and a site that made it available for download, TVaddons.ag, seeking damages of $150,000 for every alleged breach of copyright.
Zem was quickly pulled and many other add-on makers have taken flight, seemingly worried that they will be next to find a man with a writ on their doorstep. “In light of current events we have decided to close down Phoenix,” wrote the developer of one of Kodi’s most popular add-ons, which delivered a wide range of live TV channels, films and shows that it may have forgotten to seek permission to distribute.
The seemingly British developer of other popular Kodi add-ons, Echo Coder, followed suit, arguing that it had become a victim of its own success.
Thank you for the last year. My addons are now off-line. Its been emotional. Take care.
— ECHO CODER (@EchoCoder) June 6, 2017
The reality is we did say the growth of third party popularity would hinder us. Unfortunately now it looks like an implosion.
— ECHO CODER (@EchoCoder) June 6, 2017
Others are blaming the IPTV box sellers who tried to cash in on the iffy streams by selling “fully loaded” boxes promising free access to Netflix, Sky Sports and other premium channels on sites such as eBay and Amazon. “Thank you! Box sellers for being GREEDY and for bringing media attention that brought attention to content owners,” writes one commenter on KodiGeeks, which is keeping a tally of the vanishing add-ons.
It is, of course, possible – likely, even – that the closure of these illicit add-ons is nothing but a temporary blip. Renowned file-sharing sites often reappeared in different guises after they had been paid a visit by The Man.
In the meantime, it looks like you’ll need to search a bit deeper if your television tastes are richer than your credit card limit.
Nice article.