Google has removed Kodi from showing up in search results, as a result of a copyright complaint.
Torrent Freak reported that Kodi and VLC were both removed, though Kodi is saying the move was a mistake as the complaint was made to target piracy apps. beIN Media Group, the owner of Digiturk, listed services showing up in Google results that were distributing sports content, using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The DMCA takedown request says “The infringed content is sports content (illegal video stream) branded and watermarked with the trademark/logo BEIN SPORTS HD”.
As a result, the Kodi download page was removed, though the official site will still appear in search results. While VLC also had links removed, Google quickly reversed the action and lifted the search ban.
“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,” said Kodi’s Keith Harrington. “It feels like a very ‘guilty until proven innocent’ model which I do not agree with.”
Kodi has filed a Digital Millennium Copyright Act counter-notice in an effort to have their URL put back into search results.
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