Kodi: Three add-ons and repositories shut down by anti-piracy group

If they decide to resurrect their services, they'll reportedly be hit with a hefty fine

Earlier this month, Kodi add-on Navi-X was discontinued because of legal issues (REUTERS/Tobias Schwarz)

Three Kodi repositories and add-ons have been shut down after being targeted by an anti-piracy group in Israel, it's been reported.

They all stopped operating this week after the group, Zira, threatened them with legal action.

Though Kodi isn’t illegal, people can use third-party add-ons built by developers to access illegal streams for sports events, films and TV shows through the software.

The EU Court of Justice last month ruled that the sale of media players deliberately pre-loaded with add-ons linking to copyrighted content is illegal, and sites like Amazon and Facebook have also started cracking down on so-called “fully loaded Kodi boxes”.

Zira filed for an injunction to stop the owners of abeksis.com, kodi-senyor.co.il and kodiwizardil.net from continuing to offer their Kodi services last week, reports TorrentFreak.

However, before the cases went to court, all three reached a settlement with Zira and closed down.

They will reportedly have to pay up 100,000 shekels (£22,000) if the choose to resurrect their repositories or add-ons in the future.

All three sites have also replaced their content with a warning from Zira.

“The site you’ve entered was taken down since it was violating intellectual property rights,” reads the message.

“The site’s operators were fined by the court and therefore the site ceased to operate!”

Earlier this month, Kodi add-on Navi-X was discontinued because of the legal issues surrounding people’s use of the open-source software.

It had been operating for 10 years, and was described as “the oldest Kodi add-on of its kind”.