There is that, which the Kodi fanboys don't quite seem to grasp. Were the folks at Kodi to really care, they would have their platform not be able to have these addon program attach to theirs, would they.

No, they would rather just claim "It's not our fault.".

Love Kodi and don't use the bs downloades.
So your accusation is obviously based on ignorance and a lack of actual experience
IF you have any actual experience and aren't talking out of your ass please continue to contribute Otherwise please stop acting as a politician reading the highlights and not the actual bill.

Kodi doesnt steal content...people steal content. Now replace kodi with guns. Got it?

What idiot ever suggested that guns steal content?

First of all, there is no such thing as a Kodi box, regardless of whether it comes 'fully-loaded' for enabling piracy or not. What that term generally refers to is a cheap, underpowered, & outdated (and with little to no upgrades) Android boxes that are running some custom version of KitKat 4.4

Regardless of price, accessories or what software it comes loaded with, they are all a dime a dozen, and shitty excuses for media players in general. Their only saving grace was that they had a hardware h264 decoder, and could thus play HD content regardless of the slow CPU and limited ram. I hate dealing with these boxes and even the decent ones eventually give trouble when they get updated and can't handle the extra load, or start to run low on storage space on the tiny SSD and can grind performance to a halt.

Kodi is just software and they've always targeted the platform that had the cheapest barrier to entry. In the beginning, that was actually the original Xbox and when Android SOC boards became so small and cheap, it was a logical step to add support for Android.

I've been using the software for my own personal library for over a decade, (in fact it is one of the only media players that can actually play back your own ripped DVD or Blu-ray image with the menu intact, albeit you ironically need to strip out the drm in order to make that legal backup copy to do so).

I guess my point here is that Kodi is good, Piracy is bad. People who try to polish a turd and capitalize on a few buzzwords to sell it as the latest greatest thing suck, and they ruin it for everyone. Not to mention that often times, especially with older people, they are taken in by the sales pitch don't even realize that utilizing it this way is illegal as in their eyes they paid for the box and it doesn't feel like stealing to them.

I for one, think that this judgment is a good thing. The more they crack down on this behavior, and the more people talk about it like this discussion here, the more the awareness of the distinction is made clear. That can only help Kodi secure more content providers agreements and become more 'legit' in the public's opinion.

I like to think of myself as a forward thinker, I'm always looking as to what the next big thing will be, and I'm always ready to accept change and make things better, (even if you have to break them first in the process). I guess my earlier point about 'strong arming' the big content holders was more about frustration at their refusal to look forward and see how they can adapt their business model to embrace the coming change. It's always better to cut off a problem before it gets too large and work with something rather than against it.

As for them having to accept a loss, sure they may suffer some losses if they fight the winds and stick to their old ways, but when they listen and adapt there is always more money to be made for everyone. Last year the music industry reported the highest revenue earnings in ten years due to streaming music subscriptions, something that didn't exist 10 years ago. Even Spotify and Sirius didn't show up until 2008. So I'm not exactly shedding any tears over their 'lost profits' for not adapting soon enough. In most cases where people pirate material it is because it's not available yet in their region and in this day and age there's really no reason for that anymore.

And not every illegal download is a potential sale lost either, a lot of times it actually creates sales. Various studies have shown that the people who download the most are also the ones who buy the most. These are the folks who need to have new content as soon as it's available, and then spread the word generating buzz and getting their friends interested about it as they are usually also the film buff or guy who people go to for their recommendation on what's good and new.

Again, I'm not condoning Piracy in any way or making any excuses for it, just saying that it is never as cut and dry as the media makes it out to be.

But that's still the wrong question. The whole INTENTION of the marketed "magic boxes", as discussed in these articles, is to enable these illegal streams.

But it's not a "Kodi" box, it's cheap hardware that runs an open source operating system, which in turns runs an open source media player, which in turn runs custom modifications that aren't in the control of any of the former "supporting parties". Android and the SOC-maker are just as much to blame in this scenario as Kodi (for enabling Kodi to run and do it's thing, don't you think?), but as the last link in the chain, Kodi is the name that pops up when it boots, so it gets the bad rap.

But if Kodi wasn't available, or somehow locked down their plug-in architecture to only "known" developers (is that in the spirit of open source?), those guys would just hack some front end onto VLC or one of many other open source media players that can do similar things as Kodi.

I myself have 4 "Kodi boxes" - some based on Intel NUC systems, and others based on "hacked" Chromeboxes, all running LibreElec. So, good Intel hardware. They contain nothing but my own personal ripped library and other legal streaming sources. I have participated in the development of Kodi (mostly as an alpha tester and annoying hard ass on making sure things work correctly in terms of pristine color space accuracy and other playback glitches). The official forums are very strict on not supporting anyone running illegal addons (by requiring full logs posted for any tech support, which detail all running plugins).

Anyways: I had thought that XBMC had changed their name to Kodi to allow legal protection of that name from these kinds of abusers. Doesn't seem to have helped.

So the computer or phone you are responding too here has access to "illegal content" as well. So does this mean you or all of us should stop using these devices?
Even though there are many ways to access "legal" content this way.

So you haven't heard of armed men robbing redbox's?

I think my question essentially was whether those hardware/software companies would have enough business to survive if they were not selling mostly to end users who pirate.

Take away the content stealers, and do the "Kodi makers" have a business at all, or just a weekend hobby?

Well Kodi has been in development for way before there were smartphones or Android. They are a group of well intentioned, talented developers who all contribute their considerable time, resources and skills to make a program that was, is and will hopefully always be ahead of the times. It is one of the best examples of what can be accomplished with open source development and is still continuing strongly in spite of all this undeserved controversy.

As far as I can tell, they aren't a big conglomerate that is all about making money or boosting their brand, they are a not-for-profit organization of selfless individuals who do this because they have a passion for media.

If by makers of the boxes you mean the sellers that offer the loaded piracy boxes, these are the same guys who would sell you direct TV cards, or cable filter removers back in the day. There will always be a niche group who will try to rip off something and try to get stuff for free and then turn around and offer it to people to try and make a quick buck, and Kodi, 3rd party add-ons and cheap Android SOC's have just made this the latest target.

But as the original post says, I think we are starting to see the end of this particular stint. This judgment will set a precedent going forward and open the floodgates for prosecutions of these box sellers. Once they realize that it's not worth the risk, they will start to turn their attention elsewhere towards something that is easier.

At least until that new thing becomes popular enough that it gains enough traction to show up on the radar and then it's the whole cycle over again. People like that never change, they will always find some way to skate by and avoid honest work by trying to capitalize on the fad of the day.

This is really not true. The vast majority of what is stolen is what is already popular, or how much something is stolen is in roughly based on how popular it is. That music doesn't need world of mouth or theft to make it popular, it's already popular which is why people are stealing it.

Everything else is vastly below that in terms of even potential sales, much less actual sales, and any theft of that material only hurts those artists, because they aren't getting a lot to begin with, and the internet has spread potential fans so thinly that they need every sale they can get.

And of course the massive theft of the popular stuff destroys the revenues that USED TO BE used to give new artists a shot. It was the windfall from the one in twenty or thirty or more who really hit big that provided the revenues to sign up the others who never hit it big.


As to the people who steal the most buying the most, I'm fairly sure that's nothing but an internet myth serving to justify theft. If in fact people who steal more buy more, then the music industry should be in a huge upswing, because the people who don't steal (because they either don't do music at all or they buy it) wouldn't have changed the equation one way or another. OTOH, the enormous number of folks stealing content like crazy would all be buying more, and hence the number of sales could only be going up.

But of course they've plummeted in the music industry, whose content is the easiest to steal. So it's a bit difficult to believe that theft generates sales.

The major point of the ruling is more to remove the grey area of "is it illegal to view pirated hosted content if you're not downloading it". EU answer is yes, it's theft, same to view a pirated stream as it is to download a full copy.

First, you have to state it's illegal publicly.
Second, Kodi will break the plugins.
Third, those who wish to steal it will find another way, but you will have greatly reduced the number of users, especially those who bought a pre-loaded box and many will not do it again for fear it will break again, not worth the hassle.

I didn't realize you could scare a vending machine with a gun and make it give up its DVDs.

Most people buying these kodi devices are being convinced by the sellers that they are legal. I know several that have them that would not have bought the boxes if it had been clearly defined as stealing content. They were told it's all fine as long as you don't download a copy.

You reading minds through threads now?

You don't know me at all, but you manage to call me ignorant?

Didn't know I was "reading the highlights, like a politician.".


Bottom line is that the nice people that write, or wrote, the Kodi software, could easily write their code so the plugins would not work. No doubt this will happen in Europe should they wish to remain legit in any form of the word.

As with many others here, I have run into those who wish to use a hacked box, and like many, I refuse to deal with, or install the device. Yes, I do inform the client that the device IS illegal, since it's been "hacked" so to speak.

Said hacking couldn't exist, if it weren't ignored.


All that said. Kiss it.