How the Kodi Box Took Over Piracy • Hacker News Board

Re: How the Kodi Box Took Over Piracy

#31

Post by Crosseye_Jack » Mon, Oct 30, 2017, 5:20 PM UTC

alistproducer2 wrote: post #28

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.

You need the widevine lib but I was under the impression that recent builds of kodi could support Amazon Prime and Netflix content via plugins (valid accounts for both are obv needed)

https://github.com/asciidisco/plugin.video.netflix

EDIT: Reading the issues on the NF Plugin GH seems like you will need a heatsink for the RPI3 and you are prob only going to max out at 720p

Re: How the Kodi Box Took Over Piracy

#32

Post by MikeKusold » Mon, Oct 30, 2017, 5:21 PM UTC

alistproducer2 wrote: post #28

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.

Amazon and Apple both allow you to buy per episode already. I'm guessing what you mean is that the price per episode isn't "micro" enough for you.

Re: How the Kodi Box Took Over Piracy

#33

Post by octalmage » Mon, Oct 30, 2017, 5:21 PM UTC

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.)

My dad got one on because a coworker told him about it. It's a Fire stick you can buy on eBay that comes preloaded with Exodus. He has no clue how or why it works, just that it has every movie and TV show for free. Which is better than all of the other services combined.

I pirated a bunch of stuff when I was younger because I didn't have cable, but now it's easier to pay thanks to Netflix and all that. But like others have said I'm not going to pay $10 a month for each network. They need to work together to get their content on a single platform. People are going to do the easiest thing, and currently Exodus is winning.

Re: How the Kodi Box Took Over Piracy

#34

Post by TrinaryWorksToo » Mon, Oct 30, 2017, 5:32 PM UTC

MikeKusold wrote: post #32

alistproducer2 wrote: post #28

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.

Amazon and Apple both allow you to buy per episode already. I'm guessing what you mean is that the price per episode isn't "micro" enough for you.

Each episode of G O T is 3.00 on youtube. Or you can buy the whole season for $20 HBO GO is $15 per month and you can watch more than one season. This is clearly way too high a price. In theory, google should compete with HBO GO and lower their price.

Re: How the Kodi Box Took Over Piracy

#35

Post by m-p-3 » Mon, Oct 30, 2017, 5:32 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?

Thanks to Kodi, my Steam Link has been repurposed into something I actually use.

Re: How the Kodi Box Took Over Piracy

#36

Post by rhino369 » Mon, Oct 30, 2017, 5:36 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.

Are they though? Only 2 out of 49 million HBO subscribers are HBO Now users. And Americans still pirate HBO content in large numbers.

People are canceling $100/month revenue cable plans and getting $10 netflix. That's a large loss of revenue.

It's not clear to me that streaming can actually support the television ecosystem we have now.

Re: How the Kodi Box Took Over Piracy

#37

Post by rhino369 » Mon, Oct 30, 2017, 5:38 PM UTC

Nullabillity wrote: post #22

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?

> 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.

Why would anyone think tip jar as a business model is a good idea?

Do people really want a world where the Battle of the Bastards stops so Jon Snow can tell you about how much he loves Sonos Speakers, how he uses Blue Apron, and then reads a list of Patreon supporters?

Re: How the Kodi Box Took Over Piracy

#38

Post by Mindwipe » Mon, Oct 30, 2017, 5:40 PM UTC

TrinaryWorksToo wrote: post #34

MikeKusold wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon and Apple both allow you to buy per episode already. I'm guessing what you mean is that the price per episode isn't "micro" enough for you.

Each episode of G O T is 3.00 on youtube. Or you can buy the whole season for $20 HBO GO is $15 per month and you can watch more than one season. This is clearly way too high a price. In theory, google should compete with HBO GO and lower their price.

Google are granting permanent (to all intents and purposes) ownership of the content to view, whereas a month does not cover time to watch all the episodes of a new season, and goes away the second you stop subscribing, and allows the content to be downloaded. Your theory is comparing apples and oranges.

Re: How the Kodi Box Took Over Piracy

#39

Post by Crosseye_Jack » Mon, Oct 30, 2017, 5:40 PM UTC

TrinaryWorksToo wrote: post #34

MikeKusold wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon and Apple both allow you to buy per episode already. I'm guessing what you mean is that the price per episode isn't "micro" enough for you.

Each episode of G O T is 3.00 on youtube. Or you can buy the whole season for $20 HBO GO is $15 per month and you can watch more than one season. This is clearly way too high a price. In theory, google should compete with HBO GO and lower their price.

Don't the rights holders for these shows set the price and not Google? (The Price per episode is the same as if you buy the episodes on Amazon Video)

Also on YouTube you are "Buying" the episode / season so you can watch it anytime you want, with HBO Go if you stop paying the subscription you lose access to the content.

Re: How the Kodi Box Took Over Piracy

#40

Post by omg_ketchup » Mon, Oct 30, 2017, 5:42 PM UTC

There's a massive gap between the pirate service and the "legitimate" media service.

For one, you can just type something in, and get the movie you want. You don't have to navigate between 15 different services, and then find out the film is only available on mail-order DVD, or in other countries.

For television, the networks are HORRIBLE about providing their content to cord-cutters. Want to watch the latest episode of Mr. Robot, which airs on Wednesday at 10pm? You're gonna have to wait AT LEAST until 9am on Thursday morning, WITH YOUR PAID SUBSCRIPTION. Or, you can pirate it for free.

I'm not sure how many times it needs to be said, but Piracy is not a payment issue, it's an access issue.

Also, companies being greedy is a bad look. CBS hiding Star Trek behind their proprietary $10/month service is going to kill Star Trek, because the intended audience sees it as a bullshit cash grab. Put it on Hulu you greedy bastards.