More Evidence That Netflix and Amazon Have Joined a Legal War Against Piracy

The streamers join the studios in a lawsuit against Dragon Media.

Should Netflix and Amazon just go ahead and join the Motion Picture Association of America already? One might wonder after seeing the latest lawsuit from the two streamers plus Universal, Columbia, Disney, 20th Century Fox, Paramount and Warner Bros.

Together, these companies on Wednesday filed a complaint in California federal court against Dragon Media, which offers a set-top box that comes pre-loaded with customized open-source Kodi software and can be used to access pirated content. "Get rid of your Premium Channels," is how Dragon advertises its product. "Stop paying for Netflix and Hulu."

The legal action follows a similar lawsuit by Netflix, Amazon and the gang of studios. In October, they all sued Tickbox. The litigation has become a ticket to a time travel of sorts to the arguments and conclusions made in Sony Betamax and Grokster.

Proving that the prior action wasn't a one-night stand, but perhaps the beginning of a relationship premised on mutual hatred of the perceived Kodi scourge (apparently, each of the plaintiffs are members of the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment), the latest lawsuit asserts intentional inducement of infringement and contributory copyright infringement. Kelly Klaus at Munger, Tolles is the attorney for the plaintiffs.