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Kodi set-top boxes that allow football fans to stream live matches without a license are being blocked by the UK’s four largest ISPs after the Supreme Court approves an injunction against piracy.
Sky, BT, TalkTalk and Virgin Media are all required to block servers streaming Premier League football matches.
“The new block will allow for a proportionate and targeted restriction of content that would otherwise have been distributed to unauthorized websites and IPTV devices,” the Premier League said after obtaining the court order from Mr Justice Arnold on Wednesday.
BT and Sky throw millions of pounds into footie matches to win exclusive rights to broadcast the games live. Earlier this week, BT Sport acquired the exclusive rights to show UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League matches until 2021.
But broadcasters and the Premier League are concerned 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 Supreme Court issued an order to block the servers streaming the matches through the Kodi boxes under section 97a of the Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act.
“We will continue to work with ISPs, governments and other sports content producers to protect consumers from illegal services that offer no recourse when services are removed, do not provide parental controls and, in many cases, are provided by individuals involved in other criminal activity,” the Premier League said.
The Premier League has been involved in a number of recent legal proceedings against individuals who supplied Kodi boxes to football fans who wanted to watch the matches without coughing up a subscription fee to Sky or BT.
This week, a millionaire who thrashed Kodi boxes to pubs for £1,000 a pop was sentenced to £250,000 and sentenced to 10 months in prison, which was suspended for a year after 65-year-old Malcom Mayes of Hartlepool, County Durham pleaded guilty to the crime. illegally selling the boxes.
List image by Alex Livesey/Getty Images