EMR

Free in the UK, you are not in the UK.

carvoeiro

give it rest man
free tv in every country to some extent
free accross borders where the technology existed
only not free from the UK initially - even though i believe you could get free UK tv in France as early as the 50s - because of the lack of technology
only an issue now because some of the greedy large conglomerates pay for enough political support to make it so
when i worked in the city almost every company had as many as 6 mp's appointed to the board as non exec directors - specifically to lobby on their behalf

i worked on some projects that could only go ahead subject to later changes in the law - guess what - all of the changes were made

macliam

I take it you never went to Ireland then? 30ft poles with aerials to pick up BBC and ITV wales if you were close enough to the coast. Never heard of anyone prosecuted......

EMR

We had those poles around here, pre digital TV when those in certain areas who could only receive telewelle put them up so that they could receive the local BBC West Country service.
Kodi has announced that it too is now going after those who are selling their boxes pre loaded with software that access subscription and Geo blocked tv services.
They will also take action against those posting info on how to do this yourself.
It is loosing sales as a result of the action already being taken by Amazon etc to block sales of pre loaded Kodi boxes.
Commercial pressures will always take priority.

macliam

Are they? Do you actually know what kodi is??

They don't sell "boxes, they are an opensource platform - so how can they be "loosing sales"(sic), since they don't sell anything.....

Even if they lost financial sponsors, I doubt very much that kodi itself would be "going after" anyone or "take action" against anyone as that would cost money for no return.

They may try to firm up their software to prevent illegal use by third-party suppliers, but that would be resisted by the developers, who are unpaid - and would be difficult to police on an open-source platform. If kodi drop out, another platform will take its place.

Whatever happens, the likelihood of a "normal" user being prosecuted is about the same as all the users of Pirate Bay being tracked down. Meanwhile, there are many other ways of accessing the same material

EMR

It's called brand protection.
They are advertised as kodi boxes, just Google that description.
The kodI brand is being devalued by the copywrite infringers.
I agree the battle between the owners of copywrite and those who want to make money by stealing it will continue.
Rather like the music platforms, Spotify and Deezer a compromise will be reached with consumers being able to achieve different types access according to what they are prepared to pay for.

macliam

Again, there is no "Brand" to protect or be "devalued" as kodi do not sell anything - and regardless of any Google search, the boxes advertised are just standard android boxes of various types, makes and quality which have kodi software pre-loaded onto them by the sellers. The kodi software itself is free and open-source - and NOT illegal.

What is less legal is the use of third-party extensions to the kodi platform which allow people to access other media sources on the internet to see sports, or watch movies or box-sets, etc. without payment. However, as an open-source platform it is difficult for kodi to control such usage.

Whilst the copyright holders might choose to prosecute those who grant access to their material, it is not easy for them to track down and prosecute the culprits, unless they can prove that they are actively seeking to deprive them of their income. This may be easy enough for those providing access for commercial premises (i.e. Pubs) to restricted Sports coverage, or for those advertising a product as specifically created to avoid payment for restricted services, but tracking down end-users would be far, far more complex.

What all the publicity has done is actually to let people know that such platforms exist - so the boy crying wolf is actually drumming up support for the pirates!

EMR

Why then is Kodi taking action.?
Along with the various regulatory authorities, Amazon etc .
Why has the UK passed new legislation.
Why has the ECJ found against those who sell such boxes.
The broadcasters no longer have to prove loss of income as their copywrite is now protected in law.
The private end users will find fewer and fewer ways of getting free access as the action taken by Filmon demonstrates.

mfesharne

Quite right.

An awful lot of people completely misunderstand what Kodi & for that matter Mobdro is & how it works.

Knoxy_UK

It's a civil offence rather than a criminal offence. It requires the plaintiff to take the responder to court. The police won't deal with the matter.

Why is the KODI foundation banging the drums, probably following legal advice. It's to demonstrate a clear and unequivocal line between the foundation and the 3rd party apps.

The foundation could sue the sellers of boxes if they are using the trademark without permission and for financial gain.

macliam

Copyright was always protected by law (that's why it exists), but since the police don't have resource to chase burglars, I can't see them spending thousands of man-hours chasing down possible pirates. The clarifications of law are required to update it to cover recent innovations, so nothing new there either. kodi and Filmon have nothing whatsoever to do with each other - you are conflating the two to press your view that access to media must be paid for.

kodi might be talking about "taking action" against people advertising boxes as "powered by kodi", etc., but it has yet to happen - and meanwhile pre-loaded boxes are still being sold on Amazon, regardless of what you might have read. The only convictions have been against people selling kodi-enabled boxes to pubs in order to avoid commercial fees and the rest is merely a campaign by the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) and widely reported by such earnest purveyors of fact (pun intended) as the Daily Express. This is no different to the old campaigns about counterfeit DVDs, except the media has moved on.

Where a streaming service can be identified as providing access to copyright material, it may be shut down or blocked, but that will just cause it to move elsewhere. Unless the owners can be identified and prosecuted, there's not much else the UK law can do about a server based in Russia - that's the nature of an international network.

End users will not be targeted although there was a veiled threat that they might be "caught up" in investigations of streaming services...... just like the thousands of owners of pirated DVDs who were prosecuted (not). So, the worst that will happen is that users might have to reconfigure their services, but anyone who uses kodi will already be doing that anyway.

BEVS

No. There again I am down in the land that time forgot.

What is it?

carvoeiro

its a shell - a free software package that provides a series of players - music - video- software and lots of blank space for clever people - professional and amateur to fill with addons - additional programs
you can play your own music -videos etc in the basic package the advantage is it supports virtually all file types
the additional programs do things like connect to music downloads - connect to live concerts - connect to live tv around the world - find movies old and new - run games - and anything else anyone can think of
a bit fiddly to set up - but really great
its like owning a great kitchen - then the rest of the world gives you free food to cook in it

mfesharne

In 'non tech' language Kodi is a way to watch pretty much all movies & TV (from oldest to newest) on demand for free.

It is not a single program but rather a series of programs that needs to be put together in the right order rather like building a wall.

Mobdro is technically different but basically gives a similar result except scheduled rather than on demand.

Depending on whether you put it on a laptop, I pad or other device such as an Android box it can be watched on computer or TV.

It is not illegal to install and/or watch but it is illegal for an individual to advertise & sell such device as something like 'a kodi box' (which term is basically a misnomer anyway)

Where the furore we've seen in the media has come from is when people have opened businesses openly advertising 'fully loaded kodi boxes' etc for sale to pubs & clubs etc for obscenely high prices & that has been proven to be illegal.

So for example, if you load kodi onto an android box such as can be bought anywhere and sell it to someone, that act is illegal but if you buy an android box, load the programs on yourself or even have someone do it for you without payment, that isn't illegal.

These links might be of interest: http://feliztech.com/2017/04/15/kodi...-the-uk-press/

http://feliztech.com/how-to-watch-en...v-in-portugal/

I have no commercial link to the site but do find it very informative.

EMR

THe law has moved on since 2015, current legislation both EU and UK now technically makes it illegal to watch a pirated product protected by copywrite.
Kodi are aware of this and do not want their brand associated with this practice.
The days of free TV are numbered, maybe not today or next week but it is coming to an end.