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posted by martyb on Friday February 17 2017, @06:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the Don't-blame-$foo.-Blame-$foo-misuse. dept.

In an interview with Variety, the Motion Picture Association of America's CEO Chris Dodd spoke out about the growing popularity of Kodi open source media player:

While torrent sites have been a thorn in the side of the MPAA for more than a decade, there's a new kid on the block. Speaking at the Berlin Film Festival, MPAA chief Chris Dodd cited the growing use of the Kodi platform for piracy, describing the problem as the "$64,000 question."

[...] Legal battles over the misuse of the platform are ongoing, mainly in the UK and the Netherlands, where test cases have the ability to clarify the legal position, at least for sellers of so-called "fully loaded" devices. Interestingly, up until now, the MPAA has stayed almost completely quiet, despite a dramatic rise in the use of Kodi for illicit streaming. Yesterday, however, the silence was broken.

In an interview with Variety during the Berlin Film Festival, MPAA chief Chris Dodd described the Kodi-with-addons situation as "new-generation piracy". "The $64,000 question is what can be done about such illegal use of the Kodi platform," Dodd said.

While $64,000 is a tempting offer, responding to that particular question with a working solution will take much more than that. Indeed, one might argue that dealing with it in any meaningful way will be almost impossible.

First of all, Kodi is open source and has been since its inception in 2002. As a result, trying to target the software itself would be like stuffing toothpaste back in a tube. It's out there, it isn't coming back, and pissing off countless developers is extremely ill-advised. Secondly, the people behind Kodi have done absolutely nothing wrong. Their software is entirely legal and if their public statements are to be believed, they're as sick of piracy as the entertainment companies are. The third problem is how Kodi itself works. While to the uninitiated it looks like one platform, a fully-modded 'pirate' Kodi setup can contain many third-party addons, each capable of aggregating content from dozens or even hundreds of sites. Not even the mighty MPAA can shut them all down, and even if it could, more would reappear later. It's the ultimate game of whac-a-mole.

Previously: XBMC Is Getting a New Name: "Kodi"
Middlesbrough Trader Prosecuted for Selling Streaming Boxes Preloaded With Kodi
Five Arrests in 'Fully Loaded' Kodi Streaming Box Raids

[Ed Note: This is the same Chris Dodd who served 30 years as a US Senator from Connecticut. Probably best known for the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.]


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @07:25AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @07:25AM (#468124)

    Streaming is not a crime, remember?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @02:11PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @02:11PM (#468208)

    Copying blah blah yes I'd download a car.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by DannyB on Friday February 17 2017, @02:19PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 17 2017, @02:19PM (#468214) Journal

      Downloading a car would be a crime. Streaming a car would not be a crime.

      Copying == theft! (omg!)

      Streaming != theft (unless the MPAA says so)

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
      • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday February 17 2017, @06:22PM

        by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 17 2017, @06:22PM (#468289) Journal

        It may not be theft, it can be copyright infringement. I'd argue that the copyright terms are too long and allow too many renewals, but that's a separate argument. Saying it isn't theft is true, but (nearly) irrelevant.

        --
        Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Friday February 17 2017, @07:40PM

          by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 17 2017, @07:40PM (#468316) Journal

          I was hoping the snark would come through in my post. Starting with the absurdity of accepting without criticism the notion of downloading a car.

          Copyright Infringement is not theft.

          Copyright length should allow exactly zero renewals to the length of copyright which is already absurdly too long.

          I don't engage in copyright infringement because I find increasingly little from either MPAA or RIAA that I would even consider worth wanting to have a copy of. Legally or otherwise.

          As for MPAA offerings that I do want to see, if it isn't on Netflix, HBO, Starz, Prime, Hulu then it does not exist as far as I am concerned. End of story. I don't care how much they think it is worth. It's not. Really.

          --
          People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
          • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Saturday February 18 2017, @01:15AM

            by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Saturday February 18 2017, @01:15AM (#468441) Journal

            Well, I suppose "downloading a car" is a legitimate snark...this year. And it's the "this year" which is why it didn't come through...but I've heard analogous arguments that were intended seriously, and were also currently impossible.

            --
            Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
        • (Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Friday February 17 2017, @11:08PM

          by Anal Pumpernickel (776) on Friday February 17 2017, @11:08PM (#468395)

          It's hardly irrelevant when copyright thugs keep trying to insist that it is theft.