Netflix, Amazon, and several major movie studios are joining forces and filing a first-of-its-kind copyright lawsuit against the streaming media player manufacturer, TickBox.
The complaint, filed Friday, claims the company’s devices are nothing more than “tools for mass infringement.”
But TickBox TV claims to be 100% legal
The device in question, the TickBox TV, operates by grabbing pirated video streams from the Internet, giving users instant access to multiple sources that stream the Plaintiffs’ copyrighted works without authorization.
While TickBox’s front-page Q&A brazenly cites its sources, other parts of the Q&A seem to directly contradict claims of legality.
The platform even has an “In Theaters” category that includes unreleased content that is definitely not authorized for free Internet streaming. For instance, Fox’s War for the Planet of the Apes was listed as available on TickBox even though Fox had not authorized the movie for in-home viewing of any kind.
We’re not lawyers, but… seems pretty dubious
The device is powered by Kodi, an open source media player software that is legal. But in the age of the piracy boom, software like Kodi can easily be exploited by copyright-infringing add-ons like TickBox TV.
Needless to say, the facts presented in the complaint don’t seem to bode well for the streaming company’s survival, as pretty much all signs lead to suuuuper shady.