How the Kodi Box Took Over Piracy • Hacker News Board

Re: How the Kodi Box Took Over Piracy

#21

Post by microcolonel » Mon, Oct 30, 2017, 4:56 PM UTC

stonogo wrote: post #19

microcolonel wrote: post #15

Just think for a second about the hyperbole involved in even calling it piracy. Piracy implies not only theft, which isn't applicable since there is no deprivation, but the pillage of a vessel on the high seas, and the kidnapping (and possibly enslavement, slaughter, rape, or drowning) of its crew. I think that this (and a whole system of) hyperbole has made it impossible to even talk about it. The MPAA and other sim…

Yeah, turns out language changes. The TRIPS agreement defines piracy in terms that have nothing to do with shivering timbers. As for "standardized rights", that kind of shit is what leads to taxes on media like blank CDs or, before them, cassette tape, and -- worst of all -- organizations like ASCAP getting royalty payments by default, whether they're entitled to them or not. Any effort to "standardize" rights manage…

> Any effort to "standardize" rights management generally turns into a club with which entrenched interests beat down innovation or dissent.

...then don't license your rights in that format, are you thinking I'm saying the government of the United States should be responsible for determining the licensing terms of media? I'm just thinking that there could be some standardized package with official masters, metadata, and rates, which any old streaming provider could register for, download, reencode, and start sending the revenues their way. Beyond that, rights holders obviously retain the right to strike cheaper or higher-service deals with specific providers, or to stop licensing their content, just like before. I don't mean sell every TV show and movie at the same price, I don't mean forfeit your rights, I don't mean anything of the sort, I mean standardize the agreement format.

> Just let them burn out with their shit business models; we don't need them anyway.

But in the future, how will we access media from the on-demand age, or which is no longer available DRM-free?

Re: How the Kodi Box Took Over Piracy

#22

Post by Nullabillity » Mon, Oct 30, 2017, 4:56 PM UTC

hotgoldminer wrote: post #5

bhouston wrote: post #2

I was surprised by how prevelant these boxes are. It seems that every second family with kids has these and are streaming media to it. These families had no idea what torrents are, but were using pirated content basically every day and streaming it a la netflix. It is the future of piracy for sure. I suspect it is many many times larger in scope that torrents are currently. (BTW I do not have one of these.)

I know several people with access to Kodi that don't regard it as theft/piracy. They become pretty defensive when you accuse them of it. How do you think IP owners can adapt when piracy is made so transparent that it doesn't even feel like piracy anymore?

> How do you think IP owners can adapt when piracy is made so transparent that it doesn't even feel like piracy anymore?

Stop thinking of it as paying for a physical product, and start thinking of it as a tip jar for making more stuff in the future.

Re: How the Kodi Box Took Over Piracy

#23

Post by kensey » Mon, Oct 30, 2017, 4:57 PM UTC

microcolonel wrote: post #15

Just think for a second about the hyperbole involved in even calling it piracy. Piracy implies not only theft, which isn't applicable since there is no deprivation, but the pillage of a vessel on the high seas, and the kidnapping (and possibly enslavement, slaughter, rape, or drowning) of its crew. I think that this (and a whole system of) hyperbole has made it impossible to even talk about it. The MPAA and other sim…

> On-demand (Netflix, Hulu, HBO's online thingy, iPlayer, what have you) has been the most effective way to actually recover rights-holder revenues.

And yet those same rights-holders seem hell-bent on squandering the opportunity they were given, by splintering their offerings among their own pay services instead of offering them multiple places. I already pay for Netflix. I'm considering paying for Hulu. But there's no way I'm going to pay Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Apple, Google, CBS, HBO, Showtime, etc., etc., et-frigging-cetera just to get access to content I care marginally less and less about. (Sorry, CBS, I'm not paying your monthly fee just for Star Trek Discovery no matter how much you think that show is worth it.)

You have the content. People want the content. Offer it on your own services if you really feel that degree of vanity about it, but also offer it on enough other major services that any mix of two or three has one that has your stuff on it. You'll make more money, they'll make more money, and I'll get to watch everything I want.

Re: How the Kodi Box Took Over Piracy

#24

Post by laumars » Mon, Oct 30, 2017, 4:58 PM UTC

bsilvereagle wrote: post #7

hotgoldminer wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know several people with access to Kodi that don't regard it as theft/piracy. They become pretty defensive when you accuse them of it. How do you think IP owners can adapt when piracy is made so transparent that it doesn't even feel like piracy anymore?

> with access to Kodi that don't regard it as theft/piracy > They become pretty defensive when you accuse them of it. I would too! Kodi itself isn't theft/piracy. Kodi is a FOSS media manager that is extremely extensible. Several extensions enabling piracy have been created by third-party developers. This may seem pedantic, but it is extremely important to differentiate between a FOSS media manager and piracy-oriente…

It's not pedantic at all. It's literally the same as people running torrent clients on Windows and thus then calling Windows a piracy tool.

The term "Kodi box" really annoys me because the core tools that people buy these "Kodi boxes" for are 3rd party applications that happen to execute inside Kodi's plugin system but otherwise are not affiliated with Kodi at all. They're not even included in the Kodi's official repositories.

Re: How the Kodi Box Took Over Piracy

#25

Post by Crosseye_Jack » Mon, Oct 30, 2017, 4:58 PM UTC

dazbradbury wrote: post #3

"In the UK, Kodi boxes have garnered more attention from authorities, thanks to stingy soccer fanatics driving an early swell of adoption" This is very unfair. I don't own a Kodi box, but in the UK it's against the law to show football games on TV on Saturday between 2:45pm and 5:15pm [1]. So it's not "stingy" football fans, it's fans that have no other way to watch a 3pm kick off without actually going to the game i…

As being known as "the computer geek" in my local I am often asked if I supply "Kodi Boxes" (I Don't). In my experience of the people who ask it's a bit of column A (wanting free Sky Sports), a bit of column B (wanting games that are not shown live in the UK) and a bit of column C (Wanting movies and other on-demand tv content).

Re: How the Kodi Box Took Over Piracy

#26

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Oct 30, 2017, 5:03 PM UTC

laumars wrote: post #24

bsilvereagle wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> with access to Kodi that don't regard it as theft/piracy > They become pretty defensive when you accuse them of it. I would too! Kodi itself isn't theft/piracy. Kodi is a FOSS media manager that is extremely extensible. Several extensions enabling piracy have been created by third-party developers. This may seem pedantic, but it is extremely important to differentiate between a FOSS media manager and piracy-oriente…

It's not pedantic at all. It's literally the same as people running torrent clients on Windows and thus then calling Windows a piracy tool. The term "Kodi box" really annoys me because the core tools that people buy these "Kodi boxes" for are 3rd party applications that happen to execute inside Kodi's plugin system but otherwise are not affiliated with Kodi at all. They're not even included in the Kodi's official rep…

[deleted]

Re: How the Kodi Box Took Over Piracy

#27

Post by cmiles74 » Mon, Oct 30, 2017, 5:07 PM UTC

microcolonel wrote: post #15

Just think for a second about the hyperbole involved in even calling it piracy. Piracy implies not only theft, which isn't applicable since there is no deprivation, but the pillage of a vessel on the high seas, and the kidnapping (and possibly enslavement, slaughter, rape, or drowning) of its crew. I think that this (and a whole system of) hyperbole has made it impossible to even talk about it. The MPAA and other sim…

The comment about the language is important and, in my opinion, often overlooked. We can joke about how no one pirating "Modern Family" has ever made anyone "walk the plank", but the fact is this language lets the media paint anyone who downloads content without paying (often, they cannot pay) as someone deserving of harsh punishment. Like it or not, the criminality of the pirates of the high seas is being associated with anyone that visits a Bittorrent tracker and downloads some content. In the eyes of many, "hiding" behind a VPN service only compounds this criminality.

I think microcolonel is making an important point: it's all hyperbole and in almost all cases, there is no injured party. Certainly I am not arguing that it is right, or without a moral gray area. But it's certainly not on the same level as physical theft.

Re: How the Kodi Box Took Over Piracy

#28

Post by alistproducer2 » Mon, Oct 30, 2017, 5:12 PM UTC

I would totally support micro-payments to content producers as opposed to the status quo. Until then.....Kodi all day baby! Cut the cord and never going back!

I, however, didn't buy one pre-packaged. I did it the "hard" way and installed it on a Rpi3. If only I could play netflix on it, it would be perfect.

Re: How the Kodi Box Took Over Piracy

#29

Post by snerbles » Mon, Oct 30, 2017, 5:14 PM UTC

retSava wrote: post #4

Argh, this must be so frustrating for the Kodi devs...! There really is a very strong case for running a Kodi-box for ones own legit collection, and now it's just mentioned for the (admittedly, probably) not so slight share of piracy. MPAA and friends has turned their eye on Kodi since a while ago, like Sauron on the little hobbitses. Could this be a submarine piece?

> Could this be a submarine piece?

Considering that Wired is a legacy media (Condé Nast) publication, it's not inconceivable.

Re: How the Kodi Box Took Over Piracy

#30

Post by lostboys67 » Mon, Oct 30, 2017, 5:19 PM UTC

dazbradbury wrote: post #3

"In the UK, Kodi boxes have garnered more attention from authorities, thanks to stingy soccer fanatics driving an early swell of adoption" This is very unfair. I don't own a Kodi box, but in the UK it's against the law to show football games on TV on Saturday between 2:45pm and 5:15pm [1]. So it's not "stingy" football fans, it's fans that have no other way to watch a 3pm kick off without actually going to the game i…

A lot of the problem is pubs not paying the higher rate sky wants for pubs to show football - that's what a lot of prosecutions are.