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Kodi, previously known as XBMC or Xbox Media Center, is being used "fully loaded" with add-ons (such as TVAddons.ag) by millions of households in North America:
New data published by Canadian broadband management company Sandvine reveals that close to 9 percent of all North American households have at least one Kodi device. Roughly two thirds of these actively use pirate add-ons, which is good for millions of families in total.
[...] Sandvine analyzed a dataset from multiple North America tier one fixed-line provider, which covers over 250,000 anonymized households throughout North America. Using this data, it was able to estimate how many households actively use at least one Kodi device. "The Kodi application itself does not generate much data, but it is easy to detect within a household due to its 'heartbeat' traffic which can easily be identified," Sandvine reports.
Overall Sandvine estimates that 8.8% of the households with Internet access across North America have an active Kodi device. This translates to several millions of households and many more potential users. [...] Looking at the various traffic sources for the streaming data, including file-hosts, the company determined that 68.6% of the households with Kodi devices also use unofficial, or "pirate" add-ons.
Meanwhile, UK tabloids are running stories (tall tales?) about Kodi:
You know a technology's gone mainstream when the tabloids start yelling about it. This year the Sun, the Mirror, the Express, and the Daily Star have run splashes ranging from "Kodi Crackdown" through "Kodi Killers" to "Kodi TOTAL BAN!". It's not that they've stumbled on an underground hack scene; the stories have been briefed by copyright owners and law enforcement agencies.
[...] Illicit use of Kodi has reached a point where the UK government's Intellectual Property Office issued a "Call for Views," which closed in April, to find out how law enforcement agencies were dealing with infringing use. They use the term "IPTV," but also refer specifically to Kodi. No conclusions have yet been published, but three basic enforcement approaches are possible: shutting down suppliers of boxes, cutting off illegal streams, and going after end users.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 06 2017, @03:57PM (8 children)
Myth: Cable piracy is wrong.
Fact: Cable companies are faceless corporations which makes it okay.
Myth: It's only fair to pay for quality first-run movies.
Fact: Most movies on cable get two stars or less and are repeated ad nauseam.
So You've Decided To Steal Cable [youtube.com]
I can't afford it.
When I can afford to pay for it, I will.
But I can't so I'm not going to.
The Simpsons ( 1989 ) > Season 2 > Episode 13 [primewire.ag]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by jmorris on Saturday May 06 2017, @06:14PM (7 children)
No, you are rationalizing. If cable is overpriced crap you simply don't watch it. In the end that brings about change far faster. For as much as they want your money they need your eyeballs more because they measure success by influence and that means if you watch their crap they win.
Read a book. Project Gutenberg has the flowers of Western Civilization curated and ready for you to learn from or simply be entertained with minimal effort. Then go look through the vast trove Google has been assembling, not as clean (some haven't even been properly OCRed) or as organized yet but vast. Assuming you could read so much of that as to be bored and unable to find another book, wander over to your local public library; they have newer books and most also have DVDs. And all of this is as free as pirate TV and without the moral corruption that will follow from deciding that a 'little' stealing from 'faceless corporations' is ok. Next thing you know that sort of degeneracy will lead to voting for Democrats.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 06 2017, @06:34PM
TV, movies, books, articles, leaks. If I want information, I'll go and steal it. You can't even comprehend the extent of my degeneracy.
I am Googman. I am Bingman. I'm coming for every fucking thing, man.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Saturday May 06 2017, @06:35PM
a 'little' stealing from 'faceless corporations' is ok
We don't see it as stealing. The ownership is in doubt. Their claims of such do not necessarily make it so.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday May 06 2017, @06:37PM (1 child)
I wouldn't watch American cable TV even if they offered it to me for free -- in fact, they'd have to pay me to watch it. The intellectual level of the programming has become so sub-retarded that it's painful to sit through.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday May 07 2017, @12:11PM
The intellectual level of the programming has become so sub-retarded that it's painful to sit through.
Even stupid, yet entertaining, content is simply obsolete. In 2001 if you wanted to see hot, underdressed women, you could tune in Survivor, but super-casual stuff like that has been replaced by various subreddits on the omnipresent phone. Why even bother with the TV... As for stupid entertaining comedy style content there's youtube.
For me the problem with TV is the propaganda level, accelerated too far beyond cultural escape velocity to be relevant or interesting. Around the turn of the century, a TV show like Survivor was a dumb game show for women in bikinis which has wide appeal to at least 50% of the population, and the purpose of the show has shifted over time such that a typical segment now is three gays talking about outing a trans person, WTF is this?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 06 2017, @07:07PM
Next thing you know that sort of degeneracy will lead to voting for Democrats.
Americans did, jmorris! But you see, information was illegally stolen by the Russians working for the Republicans and Mike Flynn, and deployed by the deplorable Comey. So what was that you were saying about books?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 06 2017, @08:56PM
Hyperbolic, but I agree for the most part. If cable is too expensive, fuck 'em. Once enough people make that decision, they can either lower the price or go bankrupt.
You know, if you stopped being so reactionary you might not have high blood pressure. Take a deep breath and just accept that some people are different. You don't have to interact with them.
(Score: 1) by chair on Sunday May 07 2017, @04:38PM
I believe the post you are responding to was satire, which is a little clearer in the video clip the poster linked to.