Kodi says it won't stop users watching illegal pirated streams despite new EU law

Earlier this month, the EU Court of Justice passed a new judgement which meant people caught illegally streaming copyrighted content could face up to 10 years in jail.

The law means that people using streaming devices like the Kodi box to illegally stream TV shows, films and sports events could face a decade in jail.

Technically, the Kodi software is not illegal, but streaming any copyrighted content using one is illegal and carries a maximum 10-year jail sentence.

However, Nathan Betzen, community and project manager for Kodi, said that the company stands by its "neutral" policy.

Writing in his blog on kodi.tv, he said: "We are developers and not the police, and we have no interest in acting as police for our own software.

"Kodi will remain as free and as open as it always has. Feel free to continue using Kodi however you want.

"To us Kodi is and always will be just a tool, like a hammer, and how you choose to use that tool is up to you."

Many people use third party plug-ins and add-ons to stream pirated content to their TV, which is now the illegal IP.

Kodi has claimed that it is not its job to block these add-ons and the open source nature of Kodi means the code would immediately be edited to circumvent the blocks.

Betzen added: "To us Kodi is and always will be just a tool, like a hammer, and how you choose to use that tool is up to you," Betzen said.

"We do ask that if you decide to use Kodi in a way that's illegal, please leave us out of it.

"People who steal cars don't tweet a picture of their stolen car to Ford Motor Co. We ask that if you watch pirate streams, that you not tweet us about those streams."