Google Removes Android TV Browser Downloader From Play Store Due To DMCA Request – IT Pro – News

Google has eliminated the Downloader app from the Play Retailer. This app is an online browser with obtain operate. Downloader has been taken offline as a result of the browser may very well be used to open unlawful web sites.

The Play Retailer model of the free app was focused particularly for Android TV gadgets and had over 5 million energetic customers, writes Ars Technica. Downloader obtained a number of DMCA complaints from a number of Israeli TV firms. Google’s discover of suspension despatched to the developer says the app “permits customers to view the Sdarot web site, which is infamous for copyright infringement.”

Sdarot is Israel’s largest piracy website. The location has been sued a number of occasions, however continues to be on-line on the time of writing. In 2022, a New York courtroom ordered all ISPs within the US to dam Sdarot, notes TorrentFreak. Nevertheless, that order was later suspended.

On Twitter let the developer of Downloader know discovering the rationale for the DMCA takedown request “absurd.” He argues that it’s unfair guilty an online browser for the truth that there may be unlawful content material on the web. “If loading an internet site with unlawful content material is sufficient to violate DMCA regulation, each browser within the Play Retailer ought to be eliminated, together with Google Chrome.” The developer has appealed the ruling, nevertheless it was rejected by Google “inside minutes.”

The app, which was launched in 2016, owes its recognition primarily to the truth that it permits Android TV customers to obtain recordsdata from the web to the TV. The browser may very well be used, amongst different issues, to sideload SmartTubeNext, a form of YouTube Vanced for Android TV.

Customers who’ve already put in the app can nonetheless use it. The app can be downloaded from the Amazon Appstore and accessible as an apk from the Downloader web site.