Studios Sue Dragon Box in Latest Crackdown on Streaming Devices

An anonymous reader shares a report: Netflix and Amazon joined with the major studios on Wednesday in a lawsuit against Dragon Box, as the studios continue their crackdown on streaming devices. The suit accuses Dragon Box of facilitating piracy by making it easy for customers to access illegal streams of movies and TV shows. Some of the films available are still in theaters, including Disney's "Coco," the suit alleges. Dragon Box has advertised the product as a means to avoid paying for authorized subscription services, the complaint alleges, quoting marketing material that encourages users to "Get rid of your premium channels ... [and] Stop paying for Netflix and Hulu." The same studios filed a similar complaint in October against TickBox, another device that enables users to watch streaming content. Both TickBox and Dragon Box make use of Kodi add-ons, a third-party software application.

Re:Don't let Sony off the hook

[sirber]

cds with rootkits

Re:

[technosaurus]

Pigeons can transfer terabytes of information short distances way faster than any network so far. Don't let pigeon handlers off the hook either. The ISP, telecom, hardware manufacturer, software developers, electricity providers, content producers and government officials also "facilitated". The only entity that _should_ be prosecuted is the one knowingly serving the data.

pigeons

[davidwr]

Pigeons can transfer terabytes of information short distances way faster than any network so far

Other animals, bazookas, and even potato-guns are probably faster.

What is the TB-meter-per-second and maximum effective distance of a trebuchet-launched container filled with high-density SSD devices?

Re:

[easyTree]

I'd pay to download movies using pigeons as a transmission medium; if the price is right.

Re:

[i_ate_god]

Kodi can be installed on Windows so by your logic Windows facilitates piracy.

Re:

[nospam007]

"Kodi can be installed on Windows"

Thanks for the tip, I'm off to do it right now.

I guess those assholes shouldn't have sued and made people attentive.

Re: As someone who appreciates and pays for conten

[Anonymous Coward]

Cool story bro. As someone who doesn't give a shit who you are or whether you pay for content. The FBI needs to shut you down.

Re:As someone who appreciates and pays for content

[JaredOfEuropa]

It's not Kodi but the plugins to access these streams that facilitate piracy. Kodi has legitimate use, it's what I use to get (legal) TV, movies and music around the house.

As someone who is trying to wipe out DRM

[Anonymous Coward]

People who pay for DRMed video content should be shut down. Your actions are making the world a worse place. Stop funding evil. Stop paying them. Please learn to pirate, so that your video habits will stop being used to legitimize the ridiculous idea that software shouldn't be end-user maintainable.

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[RobotRunAmok]

>>Please learn to pirate, so that your video habits will stop being used to legitimize the ridiculous idea that software shouldn't be end-user maintainable.

So a studio who paid $100M to create a movie should gift it to you in order that you are able to... do what with it exactly? Copy it onto a second device? A third? Your boyfriend's? Your D&D Club's server? The internet? Help me out with this one... Seems as though if every movie was distributed for free, the creators would lack motivation to

boycott, don't pirate

[davidwr]

Please learn to pirate, so that your video habits will stop being used to legitimize the ridiculous idea that software shouldn't be end-user maintainable.

If you can live without it, vote with your wallet and do without.

With few exceptions such as people who review movies for a living, people do not need to watch any specific movie that comes out of Hollywood.

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[Anonymous Coward]

If you can live without it, vote with your wallet and do without.

That's an option. But you should compare the merits and flaws of that option, with the idea of "vote with your wallet and also pirate it."

Pirating it comes with more advantages and fewer disadvantages. Doesn't it seem like a pretty obvious improvement on your proposal?

With few exceptions such as people who review movies for a living, people do not need to watch any specific movie that comes out of Hollywood.

Of course. This entire discussion i

Re:

[gravewax]

pirating has a fuck load of disadvantages, it fails to punish the studio, shows them people want their stuff and all they have to do is put stricter and tighter controls and DRM on it. vote with your wallet, you are only kidding yourself if you think pirating is helping your cause, it is the worst possible thing to do if you want them to back off on the draconian restrictions.

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[Anonymous Coward]

So a studio who paid $100M to create a movie should gift it to you in order that you are able to... do what with it exactly? Copy it onto a second device?

They should sell it to me so that I can play it on the first device. I have an excellent computer that makes most home entertainment electronics looks like something out of the stone ages, and with non-DRMed files its quality and performance are unparalleled. It's a no-brainer way to watch TV. But it lacks the capacity to play anything DRMed because, like

Re:

[RobotRunAmok]

You are suggesting that Disney should release Avengers Infinity War and The Last Jedi on YouTube? Or are you suggesting that no movie be made that cannot recoup its costs via YouTube distribution?

Re: As someone who is trying to wipe out DRM

[RobotRunAmok]

All companies should âoegive back.â Every person should âoegive back.â I âoegive back.â Do you? Do you NOT think that Disney gives back? I would wager Disney gives back more than most companies. Who TF are YOU to dictate exactly *how* they give back?

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[hackwrench]

Also important is the idea of derivative works, hampered by DRM.

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[fluffernutter]

Sounds kind of like companies who can't afford to pay taxes and so feel entitled to a 0.001% tax rate. Don't even get me started on Spotify or YouTube; which are successful companies due largely in part to helping themselves to pirated content. If companies aren't going to show respect for anyone, why should an individual?

Thanks for the pointer

[OneHundredAndTen]

I had never heard of Dragon Box. Thanks for the pointer, major studios. And please become familiar with the Streisand Effect.

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[davidwr]

Where can I buy one??

Where can I download the designs so I can build one from raw materials if I am so inclined?

Raw materials meaning oil, rock/surface minerals, etc, not pre-existing chips or ready-to-use silicon wafers.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[davidwr]

If you want to build it from scratch, you must first invent the universe.

Well, I'll settle for building it with tools available in A.D. 2018 (factories, mining equipment, etc.) and "parts" available in 2018 B.C. (natural resources).

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[Translation Error]

It doesn't matter if you've heard of them if they've been shut down through legal action.

Dragon Box is a sham

[bluelip]

How can anyone take them seriously with statements such as "any units bought from eBay or Amazon from an unauthorized dealer will results in your IP and Mac Address blocked from our Server" on their website? Neither of those are hard to modify.

Re: Dragon Box is a sham

[Anonymous Coward]

The funny part is they're all about piracy until the tables are turned.

I am confused

[nashv]

Does DragonBox magically allow you to access Netflix and Hulu without paying for them ? Or is it simply the equivalent of a torrent client. This is the most stupid nonsense I've seen. And I am sad to see Netflix go the route of major channels and studios.

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[will_die]

Netflix and hulu have original content so they are suing that that content was pirated.
DragonBox is basiclly a kodibox with all the piracy add-on included and the main dragonbox web site acting as an index.

Dragon Box web site is hilarious...

[Kenja]

It has a warning about buying a third party "dragon box" which would be using their proprietary Android implementation. So they don't want people pirating their stuff that they sell to people to pirate other peoples stuff.

Get rid of your premium channels ...

[PPH]

Stop paying for Netflix and Hulu.

They are going to sue book publishers?

Right...

[Locke2005]

... and we should also go after lock pick manufacturers for burglaries, gun manufacturers for gun deaths, and car manufacturers for accidents, because if they didn't make these things, it wouldn't facilitate unlawful behavior. How about they go after the web sites actually sourcing the video?

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[Rockoon]

The site that get scraped for the pirated content arent exactly hiding either. These sites have full web front ends and only a browser is needed to view the content. The kodi pirate scripts are literally just scraping these sites.

But even the sites that are being scraped arent hosting the videos.

Re:

[jonwil]

The difference is that the Dragon Box product is specifically designed and marketed for the purpose of downloading illegally copied content.

Companies who make products that are specifically marketed to users as a way to commit illegal acts SHOULD be hit with lawsuits and action to shut down their products.

Re:

[gravewax]

any lockpick or gun manufacturer that advertises and markets their product specifically for use in criminal activities will most definitely be shut down. not sure why the fuck you would compare accidents, it would be more any car manufacturer that advertises a feature to evade police cars so you can drive home drunk or avoid being caught after commiting a robbery and likewise they would be in deep shit real fast.

Maybe studios should begin suing TV manufacturers

[SilverBlade2k]

With more and more TV's coming out with the Android TV OS, which you can easily install Kodi and the addons onto it, shouldn't they also be a target for the studios?

I read this as

[easyTree]

Studios use their considerable influence to inform everyone that DragonBox are a thing.

Thanks very much for the heads-up.

Million-card monte

[UnixUnix]

I just picked a couple of movies and TV shows one would have to pay for and put them in Google and other search engines. Leaving torrents aside, out came reams and reams of websites (some have "...locker" in their URL, others don't). Each of them does not actually store the material in question, they just provide dozens of other sites, some .com, others .io, .me or other TLDs. Clicking on, and after the occasional Captcha or stray ad that escaped my blockers, I eventually get to streaming, again under tot