Kodi is knocked off Google following DMCA takedown request
If you've been searching for Kodi using Google, you will have noticed that the media playing software has vanished from search results.
The banishment comes after a DMCA takedown request from the Turkish pay-TV service Digiturk. Owned by the beIN Media Group, the DMCA takedown request related not only to the content of a pirated stream, but to the use of a copyrighted logo on suc ha sstream.
See also:
- New Kodi update available -- download it NOW!
- Kodi facing a Windows development crisis
- Kodi 19 'Matrix' with Python 3 now available to download, but be warned
As reported by TorrentFreak, Digiturk complains that: "The infringed content is sports content (illegal video stream) branded and watermarked with the trademark/logo BEIN SPORTS HD".The takedown request makes reference to hundreds of URLs, with Kodi-related links mentioned five times.
Included among the 328 links are not only Kodi plugins, but at position 223, the official Kodi download page.
It should be noted that while Google has responded to the request by removing links from search results, the open source Kodi is entirely legal. The media player VLC succumbed to the same fate, but Google was quick to realize its mistake and lifted the search listing ban. But for Kodi, the mud of being associated with piracy appears to be sticking.
Keith Herrington from Kodi says:
It's unfortunate content companies continue to lump us and VLC together with services who are clearly in violation of copyright law by not only providing streams to their content but using their logo, etc and that Google doesn't even bother to check or validate, they just remove. It feels like a very 'guilty until proven innocent' model which I do not agree with.
UPDATE: Kodi is back in Google search results