Over the past few months the crackdown on those selling pre-loaded set-top boxes allowing people to access subscription-based content for free through their TV has increased dramatically. 

Reports of multi-agency investigations involving police and FACT, arrests and now convictions are becoming more frequent across the UK and Ireland.

On Monday, Gavin Gray was sentenced at Hamilton Sheriff Court to 300 hours unpaid community work and tagged for 12 months for 'card-sharing' in the first conviction of its kind in Scotland.

Glasgow Times:

Gavin Gray

The 25-year-old from Bellshill plead guilty to four charges of fraud and offences under the Copyright Designs Patents Act 1988.

When officers searched his home in Mossend they seized £44,500 hidden in a safe in the loft. Police also later seized £80,000 from his bank account.

Read more: Man, 25, first in Scotland convicted of TV broadcasts 'card sharing'

Android-enabled pre-loaded boxes are the most commonly sold on the internet because users simply plug the device into their TV.

A lot of these boxes use Kodi to stream their channels which contain potentially copyright infringing content such as premium pay-for TV channels, live sport and the latest cinema releases. 

But Kodi is not illegal.  

Glasgow Times:

Kodi is one of the most popular pieces of open-source, cross-platform software designed to be used for home entertainment. It's a lot like iTunes from Apple but without the registration process. It contains no content. 

It's also a free media centre that anyone can use, modify, or add to that will work on almost every operating system. 

And therein lies the problem.

Access to copyrighted content is achieved through third party add-ons. 

These add-ons are easy to install and accessible to anyone who knows what they're looking for online. This is made even simpler by the number of forums, dedicated websites and even YouTube videos offering step-by-step instructions.

Read more:  A quick guide to the media player that's taking the country by storm

The Kodi.tv Team is distancing themselves from those promoting the use of their platform with these copyright infiringing add-ons by taking legal action against anyone who uses their logo or branding inappropriately. 

Glasgow Times:

So, will the continued investigations by FACT and other enforcement agencies coupled with the increasing focus by difgital broadcast providers such as SKY, BT and Virgin Media mean the death of Kodi?

86 per cent of the Western world has access to the internet and of those, it is believed that 50 per cent have access to video streaming services.

This demand is expected to increase and it is estimated that by 2019, 80 per cent of the world's internet traffic will be video and by 2020 video streaming will rise by 50 per cent. 

In short, demand is only going to grow.

Despite the fact the kodi.tv Team has a lengthy list of banned repositories and add-ons on their website, they are still availabe and indicates that they can't actually do anything about it.

The only solution would be to stop the third party add-on functionality. 

It is more likely that enforcement agencies, broadcasters and the film industry would focus on sellers of pre-loaded boxes, third party developers and put more pressure on Internet Service Providers (ISP) rather than come after the end-user. 

Read more: Could YOU be in trouble with the law for using Kodi?

In January, many UK ISP's began sending letters to users whose IP addresses showed activity on torrent-based websites.  In June this year, popular search engines will also be logging IP addresses of users searching for torrent sites and pass them on to their ISP.  

FACT is the UK’s leading intellectual property protection organisation and claims that, "if you are accessing premium pay-for content, like Sky, BT Sport and Virgin Media, and you do not have a subscription with an official provider then this is unlawful access."

It is unclear exactly what law you would be breaking.

For now, it doesn't look like Kodi is going anywhere.