Attack one and you attack them all. Watch out pirates. Oh and also the people who think they are not pirates because they don’t host the content they are distributing. The new organization ACE is an alliance of some of the most powerful studious in the world and their members have had enough of people profiting from their creativity and the news that should frighten everyone in that world is that ACE is willing to go after soft targets before they take down the big offenders. A similar organization in Asia CAP will be monitoring the same issues in the pacific region. The recent Tickbox case is a perfect example of what you will start seeing. Tick Box is the first target of ACE.
Tick Box is an Android-powered media player TV box which makes it about as unique as green grass on a football field these days. There are lots and lots of branded and just raw Android boxes floating around the Internet and showing up at home shows and fairs across the US and for that matter the western world. And yet TickBox has caught the attention of some of the most powerful media companies in the world. TickBox doesn’t have a prayer of winning any court battle against highly funded media companies. And for that matter neither do any of the many others who do the same thing. Of course, the box sellers are only selling access to what others have been putting together in the shadows for the last few years. reporting on TickBox has even put a target on some specific third-party add-ons associated with Kodi. This may be the first example of ACE acting against a box seller. I would expect the group to also begin to follow the people who have been developing websites that distribute add-ons and APKs. This is what happened in the case of TV Addons, which is facing legal action by Canadian companies (Bell Canada, TVA, Videotron, and Rogers) and American company Dish Network in two separate engagements. TV Addons was a hotbed for the distribution of all in one apps that encouraged people to replace cable with a “free and legal” app based on Kodi. The group publicised apps that linked to copyrighted content and encouraged subscribers to try out all the apps.
The TV Addons development followed cases in Europe against box sellers and distribution networks for sports content and more.
Who should be worried going forward?
Companies that cater to cord cutters by offering content that they do not have the right to distribute better rent not buy. Because they will be found and rooted out and it will not matter if they don’t have phone numbers on their sites It doesn’t matter if they use aliases like the creator of the ZEM addon for Kodi Shahjahan Durrani or Adam Lackman, the owner of TV Addons. The people behind numerous streaming websites and apps will be targetted also because it is obvious that ACE knows how to find these people. In order to not be discovered the people behind the copyright infringing apps will need to make their sites unfindable by Google otherwise a quick search for “best Android Apps For Free Movies” will pull up articles, message boards and YouTube videos where people brag about all the great content they watch without paying for it. Then the subpoenas will drop.
So get ready people. If your cord cutting and streaming solution was a Firestick with Kodi and addons you may end up stuck just using legitimate services to watch content instead.
