Sale of media players with streams from illegal sources not banned for the time being

The preliminary relief judge has not yet ruled on whether the sale of media players that provide access to streams from illegal sources should be prohibited. Only when the European Court has ruled on this subject, the court can rule on it.

Brein demanded a ban on the sale of media players by MovieStreamer before the preliminary relief judge, invoking Article 26d of the Copyright Act, but the judge rejected the claims. That writes IE-Forum, which also publishes the verdict. Brein argued that MovieStreamer.nl facilitates the use of illegal offers for profit by selling media players that contain software that is ‘evidently intended to provide access to illegal offers’. Brein also demanded that MovieStreamer inform old customers to stop selling because of the unlawful act.

MovieStreamer sells media players that are equipped with the Kodi streaming platform and a self-developed interface. That interface uses add-ons that link to sites with streams from illegal sources. The add-ons themselves are not developed by MovieStreamer.

However, the preliminary relief judge of the Midden-Nederland District Court cannot rule that MovieStreamer’s actions are illegal. “MovieStreamer does not initiate use in a technical sense,” said the preliminary relief judge, “but facilitates it because the end users do not have to install the add-ons themselves on the MovieStreamer.” Only when the lawfulness of media players such as MovieStreamer that they offer to end users has been judged can it be determined whether facilitation is legal or illegal.

That judgment must come from the Court of Justice of the European Union. Last summer, the Lelystad court wanted to know from the CJEU whether the sale of such media players constitutes a new disclosure and whether streaming from an illegal source constitutes the same infringement as illegal downloading.