Most Kodi users need to be stopped from using illegal addons to watch free film and TV streams, says MPAA

Neil Fried also hailed streaming devices as 'the newest development' in digital piracy

The majority of Kodi users are pirates, according to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

The software, which is legal, has become extremely popular over recent months because it can be augmented with third-party-developed addons, which are designed to let you watch copyright-protected content, such as films, TV shows and live sports, for free.

The Kodi Foundation hasn’t revealed how many people use Kodi or what they use it for, but the MPAA says millions of people are using it to break the law.

Speaking at a panel hosted by the Copyright Alliance and Creative Rights Caucus, the MPAA’s senior vice president of government and regulatory affairs, Neil Fried, claimed that 38 million people use Kodi worldwide.

Of those, according to Mr Fried, 26 million use piracy addons.

He also demonstrated “how Kodi addons have made it much easier to access pirated movies & TV shows”, and hailed streaming devices as “the newest development in TV/movie piracy”, said the Copyright Alliance in Twitter updates spotted by TorrentFreak.

These devices tend to be cheap media players.

They’re often sold to consumers as “fully loaded Kodi boxes”, with Kodi and pirate addons pre-loaded onto them. However, you can download Kodi and find and install addons yourself.

According to a report from the Intellectual Property Office, Kodi boxes are making it harder to tackle piracy.

Kodi, meanwhile, has spoken out against piracy on several occasions.

“People who have been selling ‘Fully Loaded’ devices on Amazon, eBay, Facebook, etc. or provide ‘IPTV Streaming’ services with impossibly $cheap subscriptions to improbably $large selections of Movies, TV shows, Live Sports, etc. are not affiliated with the Kodi project. They are criminals who profit from piracy,” it said earlier this year.