The European Court of Justice continues its hunt on copyright infringement

For a long time, streaming services found themselves in a grey area. Recently the discussion on temporary content lit up.

The ruling by the European Court came on request of the Dutch 'Rechtbank Midden-Nederland', the District Court of Midden-Nederland. They had been asked by 'Stichting Brein', a Dutch firm that protects copyrights and the interests of copyright holders, to put a stop to the selling of media players for streaming pirated content.

The European Court of Justice has then decided that media devices with software that allows access to pirated content fall under the same laws as illegal downloading.

For instance, Kodi is a service which gives the user a platform to download plugins and add-ons. The software itself is legal but not all plugins and add-ons are. If you buy a Kodi-box with the software, plugins and add-ons already installed, it's illegal and you can be sued.

The Court also stated that the temporary reproduction of a copyright-protected work, obtained without the consent of the copyright holder, is not exempt from the right of reproduction.