TVAddons Owner Brought Down to His Knees Financially

• Numerous lawsuits and the ongoing legal battle has created an asphyxiating economic situation for TVAddons.
• The owner now owes a total of $172k to a broadcasting cartel and two law firms that resigned from defending the platform.
• The man is calling to the community now, stating that it’s a matter of keeping the Canadian internet free.

Adam Lackman, the owner of TVAddons, has launched a “gofundme” campaign asking the community to help him raise $172k that will help the platform in its legal defense. TVAddons is a Kodi repository that lets users find various add-ons that enable them to access potentially copyright-infringing content. This is why rightsholders and their associations have repeatedly filed lawsuits against the platform, forced Lackman to resign, and managed to compel TVAddons to clean its repository from pirate add-ons to avoid further legal troubles.

However, the legal battle is still ongoing, and the fronts that TVAddons have to fight on are multiple. Naturally, this has taken its toll onto the financial resources of Adam Lackman, who has to juggle between repelling the legal attacks and maintaining a platform that serves millions of users each month. DISH Networks has decided to pull back after TVAddons announced that they would no longer distribute copyright-infringing Kodi add-ons, but others like Bell Canada, Rogers, and Videotron are not as willing to let this pass. Their lawsuits remain active, seeking retribution, permanent injunction, and damage compensation.

Adam Lackman believes that while the situation so far has been disheartening, it is still worth the fight. The man has had his property confiscated without ever being given the chance to a fair trial, so he sees all action as part of an effort to censor the Canadian internet. As he states: “As a matter of principle, I don't want to give up. I want to hold these companies responsible for manipulating Canadian law. They are predatory, greedy, and won't stop until they're in a position to censor the entire Canadian internet.” Moreover, he adds that: “Right now we're in quite the jam. Our original legal team could no longer afford to bankroll our defense and quit, while the cartel suing us has already attempted to seize more of my property for the court fees owed.”

The legal firms that Lackman owes money to are Renno Vathilakis and Hilal El Ayoubi, with $84k and $39k in debt respectively. Moreover, there’s an amount of another $49k owed to Bell Canada, Rogers, Videotron and TVA, which was decided as the equivalent for the prosecutors’ legal fees. The summary of these three amounts is the $172k that Adam Lackman is hoping to convince to raise through “gofundme”. Three days after the launch of the campaign, only $2.5k has been raised, so it doesn’t look very good for TVAddons.

Will you be supporting this “gofundme” campaign, or do you believe it will be money thrown in a black hole? Let us know where you stand in the comments down below, or on our socials, on Facebook and Twitter.