At the end of April this year, exactly one quarter ago, the Czech pirate scene was hit by streamed content unexpected news in the form of the end of the Stream Cinema Community add-on. It was a thorn in the side of many streaming service operators. Completely free, for only the standard Webshare storage fee, it offered complete content from all video libraries, including Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, (Amazon) Prime Video, Apple TV+, and even Oneplay and prima+.
There is a lot of speculation as to why the add-on was discontinued, and (according to unofficial information) the fact that the original author of the Stream Cinema Community add-on took the technical know-how and moved it to a new platform, or rather a new storage facility, may have played a role.
Although at first glance this seemed like a clear victory for video library operators, it did not solve the problem. While some viewers who did not pay for the content were eliminated, the problem of streaming in a gray area continues.
The king is dead, long live the king
The service that ceased to function at the end of April was called Stream Cinema Community. It was an add-on for the Kodi application, which is commonly available for the Android operating system and Android TV, for example. At the same time, however, there was another, simplified, competing but similarly functioning platform called Stream Cinema. Nothing changed for users; both were based on the same installation principle but with different login details.
Technically, the difference between Stream Cinema Community and Stream Cinema lies in the repositories from which the add-on draws its content. While the first gray zone service worked on data from Webshare servers, the second one uses the Slovak portal Kra.sk. When visiting these websites, there is no indication that they are intermediaries that allow the viewing of illegal content. Kra.sk is, according to its motto, a cloud storage service for your files.
How could this happen to us?
The title of the Czech comedy exclusively available on Oneplay could be used to paraphrase the paragraph on available content in the Stream Cinema add-on. Even it didn't escape the "gray zone" and is currently trending in the section of the same name in first place, where it replaced the action thriller Balerína, part of the John Wick saga. Stream Cinema also allows you to choose titles in different picture and sound qualities, provided that the title is available in those qualities.
After the closure of the Stream Cinema Community add-on, it seemed that Stream Cinema would have problems with the availability of some titles, but at the moment this seems likely only for so-called premium windows, i.e., films released on streaming platforms while they are still in theaters and their price tag is around four hundred crowns. For example, Nezvratný osud: Pokrevní linie has so far resisted piracy, but given the release of the previous five episodes on HBO Max, it can be assumed that the digital premiere is just around the corner.
Stream Cinema exploits legal loopholes
The service itself does not host any videos; it only functions as a search engine and player for links to files stored elsewhere, in this case Kra.sk. Its location in Slovakia is key, as we will explain below. The add-on can thus rely on European doctrine, which protects intermediaries if they do not exercise general supervision over content. Liability arises only when they have demonstrable knowledge of illegal content. However, this is not the case with the add-on, but with the hosting service, which should respond to requests to remove content. As mentioned above, however, it is not located in the US.
The existence of the Stream Cinema add-on is also supported by European law itself, which allows that mere linking without direct financial gain and without knowledge of illegality does not constitute a copyright infringement. The absence of monetization, open code, and distributed code repositories therefore reduce the likelihood of a blanket ban or criminal prosecution of the add-on's creators. Another complication is the dual interpretation: Czech law requires "not insignificant" intervention, while in Slovakia, the removal of a single title is sufficient. If a domain or repository is eliminated, the community publishes a new version or a copy within a few hours and the project continues. Decentralized development management and the blurred line between linking and hosting therefore currently prevent the elimination of the project.
Source: mediaguru.cz