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Google Adds 'Kodi' to Autocomplete Piracy Filter

torrentfreak.com

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Re: Google Adds 'Kodi' to Autocomplete Piracy Filter

#71

Post by M4v3R »

Raphmedia wrote: post #47

Quite ironic when you can use YouTube + Chromecast to watch entire episodes of many shows and many full length movies. You can't ban software makers for the illegal use of their software by users when your own users and services are the same... Why don't they remove "full episode" from YouTube's autocomplete? (We all know the answer to that one.)

> You can't ban software makers for the illegal use of their software by users when your own users and services are the same..

The sad thing is that yes - they can, and yes - they do. And there's little we can do to stop them from doing that, apart from raising concerns and stopping using their service.

Re: Google Adds 'Kodi' to Autocomplete Piracy Filter

#72

Post by saas_co_de »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #4

>Google has banned the term “Kodi” from its autocomplete feature, meaning those who look for information on the set-top box will have to type out the full term in order to search, as reported by TorrentFreak. >While Kodi is a legal set-top box for streaming, it supports a myriad of third-party add-ons that provide access to pirated media. Kodi is not a "set-top box". Kodi is software. A set-top box might be pre-loade…

> very thing that caused Google to remove Kodi from search results in the first place

The irony is that Google has made far more money off of "piracy" than Kodi.

The sad thing is that a certain select set of companies gets special privileges while open source endeavors like Kodi get shafted.

If Kodi had a lot of private consumer data to trade for legal immunities it would be a different story.

Re: Google Adds 'Kodi' to Autocomplete Piracy Filter

#73

Post by saas_co_de »

starsinspace wrote: post #13
eco wrote: post #8

I feel so bad for the Kodi project. They've done amazing work over the years and their reputation is being destroyed so quickly by people taking their open source work, adding a bunch of piracy addons, and selling a set top box. I have no idea what they can do to combat this. I don't see how they can distance themselves from this any more than they have.

Equally sad as the existence of the terrible Kodi piracy boxes is that the legitimate set top box/"smart TV" industry is completely ignoring it. I'm not aware of any TV manufacturer building Kodi into their product, instead they invent their own junk, which is usually much worse. Does anyone know why the consumer electronics industry is ignoring Kodi?

> Does anyone know why the consumer electronics industry is ignoring Kodi?

They don't have a business model and product that is designed to spy on their customers, which makes them a turd in the toilet bowl.

Re: Google Adds 'Kodi' to Autocomplete Piracy Filter

#74

Post by notafxn »

starsinspace wrote: post #13
eco wrote: post #8

I feel so bad for the Kodi project. They've done amazing work over the years and their reputation is being destroyed so quickly by people taking their open source work, adding a bunch of piracy addons, and selling a set top box. I have no idea what they can do to combat this. I don't see how they can distance themselves from this any more than they have.

Equally sad as the existence of the terrible Kodi piracy boxes is that the legitimate set top box/"smart TV" industry is completely ignoring it. I'm not aware of any TV manufacturer building Kodi into their product, instead they invent their own junk, which is usually much worse. Does anyone know why the consumer electronics industry is ignoring Kodi?

Because the GPL is cancer. It's bad, and it spreads and ruins everything it touches.

Re: Google Adds 'Kodi' to Autocomplete Piracy Filter

#76

Post by khedoros1 »

throwaway2048 wrote: post #57
jsgo wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whether one agrees or not, Google is within their rights to remove Kodi from their autocomplete product. Whether one agrees or not, Dick's Sporting Goods is within their rights to remove partial/all (can't remember what they did exactly, honestly) gun sales. So they're not really all that different. Kodi isn't considered culpable for people using it in a bad way here, just Google is removing it from autocomplete in a…

Nobody is talking about weither google is legally allowed to do this, stop conflating legality with morality.

I think that they clearly aren't conflating the two. "Whether one agrees or not" is "Regardless of whether you consider Google's/Dick's actions moral".

The question was why gun manufacturers aren't legally accountable for crimes committed with their products while software developers are.

The (paraphrased) answer provided is "They aren't; Google removing Kodi from autocomplete is similar to sporting goods stores removing guns from sale".

Re: Google Adds 'Kodi' to Autocomplete Piracy Filter

#79

Post by PostOnce »

eco wrote: post #8

I feel so bad for the Kodi project. They've done amazing work over the years and their reputation is being destroyed so quickly by people taking their open source work, adding a bunch of piracy addons, and selling a set top box. I have no idea what they can do to combat this. I don't see how they can distance themselves from this any more than they have.

Dell, HP, and Apple all manufacture devices (laptops) used extensively, even primarily by many, for pirating movies and games, and even facilitate the piracy of games on other platforms (console flash carts etc).

I don't think Kodi's reputation should suffer any more than Apple's does, but at the same time, I know that it will.

Re: Google Adds 'Kodi' to Autocomplete Piracy Filter

#80

Post by ryandrake »

nickserv wrote: post #67
starsinspace wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Equally sad as the existence of the terrible Kodi piracy boxes is that the legitimate set top box/"smart TV" industry is completely ignoring it. I'm not aware of any TV manufacturer building Kodi into their product, instead they invent their own junk, which is usually much worse. Does anyone know why the consumer electronics industry is ignoring Kodi?

The company I work for creates STB software, and while we do use a large number of open source components the message from above is to avoid GPL where possible. Any use of GPLv2 must be signed off after review, GPLv3 is simply banned. Unfortunately most companies in the sector, from hardware manufacturers to integrators, have equivalent, if not worse open-source policies. They are willing to take the hard work of oth…

> but view sharing back as a loss of control and competitive advantage.

I’ve never understood this mentality (disclaimer: I’ve worked on set top box software). The competitive concern would only be valid if the company’s closed source software was any good. Every closed source set top box software I’ve ever seen was beyond awful, at least compared to open source alternatives. Who on earth would gain any competitive advantage from even looking at the code, let alone using it in a competing product?

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