TVAddons, the most renowned Kodi add-on platform, is also the most vocal and vociferous in its belief the service it provides is lawful.
However, the stream aggregator’s owners have been struck a mighty blow in its efforts to stay online in Canada.
Last June, a court ruled evidence procured in no-notice home search of Adam Lackman was inadmissible because it had not been executed lawfully.
As a result, a ruling forcing TVAddons offline was vacated, giving it a lifeline to remain active.
Now, TorrentFreak reports, an appeals judge hearing the case from copyright holders in Canada has reversed this decision, while casting aspersions on the add-on’s motives.
Related: Best Kodi Addons 2018
Appeal judge, Justice Yves de Montigny, says the service is “clearly designed” to be used by “those who want to circumvent the legal means of watching television programs and the related costs.”
In a further blow, the new judge also drew parallels with the pre-loaded ‘Kodi boxes’, which are currently subject to a different legal case in the Candadia courts.
“The service offered by the respondent through the TVAddons website is no different from the service offered through the set-top boxes,” he said. “The means through which access is provided to infringing content is different (one relied on hardware while the other relied on a website), but they both provided unauthorized access to copyrighted material without authorization of the copyright owners.”
While its clear that copyrighted material from high profile shows can be obtained via TVAddons, the original judge had said less than 1% of the add-ons provided access to content illegally. The appeals judge is also contending this assertion.
The judge said: “I agree with the [telecoms companies] that the Judge misapprehended the evidence and made palpable and overriding errors in his assessment of the strength of the appellants’ case.
“Nowhere did the appellants actually state that only a tiny proportion of the add-ons found on the respondent’s website are infringing add-ons. [Justice Bell] therefore clearly misapprehended the evidence in this regard by concluding that just over one percent of the add-ons were purportedly infringing.”
Do you think TVAddons has a shot at surviving the crackdown? Drop us a line @TrustedReviews on Twitter.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
