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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.]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Dunbal on Friday February 17 2017, @10:33AM
Maybe if the "entertainment industry" made their content available for much less, people would no longer pirate it.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by curunir_wolf on Friday February 17 2017, @12:25PM
I am a crackpot
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @01:35PM
Disagree, $2 per 20 min episode is too much for me, I'll pay $0.25 - $0.50 maybe... As always the largest chunk goes to the distributor which is just dumb in the internet age. I bet a large reason for DRM is actually about providing a fictional need for content producers so they feel like they have to use xyz saas. DRM harms the customer, it's really dumb.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by nitehawk214 on Friday February 17 2017, @01:51PM
Also the list of things available is quiet small. I want to play content I paid for on any device I own without paying extra. Most of the time it just isn't possible to do legally, if the content is made available at all.
Content producers have no desire to make things available.
In b4 someone says "oh x is available on this proprietary platform that I can view on this one device that I have and you don't." If I don't get to decide what I do with it, then I am not going to buy it.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by Dunbal on Friday February 17 2017, @02:28PM
It is both cost and availability. I'm sure if people could watch the show they wanted, when they wanted, they'd be more than happy to pay a monthly subscription ( a lot do it now through Netflix, Hulu, etc) or a low per/stream price. But $29.99 for the season on DVD? Fuck off.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday February 17 2017, @04:15PM
Silly consumer, just pay $20 a month to 7 different cable streaming services like we tell you! It's The American Way!
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"