On the same day that popular add-on Supremacy went down, UK police have also arrested a Kodi add-on developer from the North of England. The arrested developer was found to have been maintaining a Kodi add-on offering illegal streams.
Although it was not yet established whether the two incidents are connected, the coincidences are too obvious that it would be hard not to connect them.
Kodi is a TV streaming app and powerful piece of software still used by millions of people to organize their media. Many users augment Kodi with software add-ons that allow them to stream movies, TV shows, and sports events. While these may sound OK, most often than not this streaming infringes on copyright. So, entertainment companies and their agents wanted to reduce the use of Kodi and other similar software.
According to a report from Torrent Freak, the UK’s Covert Development Disruption Team of the North West Regional Organized Crime Unit made an arrest related to content streaming that violates copyright. A 40-year old man was arrested in Winsford, Cheshire, after he was found to be creating and maintaining a Kodi add-on that was configured to supply illegal online streams. The arrest was made through a joint effort with the anti-piracy outfit Federation Against Copyright Theft.
UK police announced that the offense was too significant and has affected broadcasters and content right owners in the UK and globally. The police have searched an address, seized evidence, and interviewed the suspect.
The suspect was released later on after posting bail. What’s peculiar about the announcement though is the fact that typically such announcement does not provide too many details. Aside from the location and age of the offender, no further details are included in the announcement. Even the add-on that triggered the referral from FACT is not usually known, making it impossible to identify the offender or the add-on that is being investigated.
As mentioned, at almost the same time that the arrest was made, popular add-on Supremacy went down without a warning or explanation.
Supremacy, a popular add-on provides access to a wide range of content ranging from movies, sports events, and TV Shows. It scrapes or aggregates content from existing online sources, presenting them inside the add-on that can then be selected by users.
Supremacy is currently not accessible anymore but cached versions of the site indeed indicate that it went down on the same day as the arrest of the Kodi add-on developer was made.
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