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posted by martyb on Friday March 30 2018, @04:22AM   Printer-friendly
from the autocompete dept.

Google has censored the term "Kodi" from its search engine's autocomplete feature, despite it being completely legal open source software:

Google has banned the term "Kodi" from the autocomplete feature of its search engine. This means that the popular software and related suggestions won't appear unless users type out the full term. Google has previously taken similar measures against "pirate" related terms and confirms that Kodi is targeted because it's "closely associated with copyright infringement."

[...] The company demotes results from domain names for which it receives many DMCA takedown notices, for example, and it has also removed several piracy-related terms from its autocomplete feature. The latter means that when one types "pirate ba" it won't suggest pirate bay. Instead, people see "pirate bays" or "pirate books" as suggestions. Whether that's very effective is up for debate, but it's intentional.

[...] The Kodi team, operated by the XBMC Foundation, is disappointed with the decision and points out that their software does not cross any lines. "We are surprised and disappointed to discover Kodi has been removed from autocomplete, as Kodi is perfectly legal open source software," XBMC Foundation President Nathan Betzen told us.

The Kodi team has been actively trying to distance itself from pirate elements. They enforce their trademark against sellers of pirate boxes and are in good contact with Hollywood's industry group, the MPAA.

Related: MPAA Chief Focuses Attention on the Kodi Platform
Hollywood Strikes Back Against Illegal Streaming Kodi Add-Ons
Kodi Returns to its Roots With an Xbox One Release
Kodi Media Player Addon Developers Under Pressure from ACE, Dish Network


Original Submission

Related Stories

MPAA Chief Focuses Attention on the Kodi Platform 44 comments

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.]


Original Submission

Hollywood Strikes Back Against Illegal Streaming Kodi Add-Ons 21 comments

An anti-piracy alliance supported by many major US and UK movie studios, broadcasters and content providers has dealt a blow to the third-party Kodi add-on scene after it successfully forced a number of popular piracy-linked streaming tools offline. In what appears to be a coordinated crackdown, developers including jsergio123 and The_Alpha, who are responsible for the development and hosting of add-ons like urlresolver, metahandler, Bennu, DeathStreams and Sportie, confirmed that they will no longer maintain their Kodi creations and have immediately shut them down.

[...] The crackdown suggests the MPA/MPAA-led Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment has a thorough understanding of how owners of so-called "Kodi boxes" are able to stream TV shows and films illegally. While Colossus merely hosts the tools, urlresolver and metahandler did much of the heavy lifting for streamers. Their job was to scrape video hosting sites for relevant streaming links and serve them up for tools like Covenant inside Kodi. Streamers will find it very difficult to find working video streams of their favorite content without them, but they could reappear via a new host in the future.

Source: Hollywood strikes back against illegal streaming Kodi add-ons

Additional info at TorrentFreak and TVAddons.


Original Submission

Kodi Returns to its Roots With an Xbox One Release 1 comment

The Kodi media player has re-entered the Xbox ecosystem. But can it be "fully loaded"?

The popular Kodi media player software returned to its roots today. The team just announced that Kodi for Xbox One is available worldwide through the Microsoft and Xbox store. This means that the project, which once started as the Xbox Media Player, has come full circle. [...] The roots of Kodi are directly connected to the Xbox, as the first iterations of the project were called the "Xbox Media Player." As time went by XBMP became XBMC, and eventually Kodi. The last name change made sense as the software was no longer being developed for Xbox, but for other devices, running on Linux, Windows, OSX, and Android.

While the broader public was perfectly happy with this, the sentimental few were missing the Xbox connection. For them, and many others, Kodi has a surprise in store today after returning to its roots. "Let us end the year 2017 with a blast including a nostalgic reference to the past," the Kodi team announced. "It has long been asked for by so many and now it finally happened. Kodi for Xbox One is available worldwide through Windows and Xbox Store."

Also at Engadget.

See also: Our 'Kodi Box' Is Legal & Our Users Don't Break the Law, TickBox Tells Hollywood

Previously: XBMC Is Getting a New Name: "Kodi"
Five Arrests in 'Fully Loaded' Kodi Streaming Box Raids
MPAA Chief Focuses Attention on the Kodi Platform
Kodi Panic in the UK and Popularity in North America
Kodi Add-on Library "TVAddons" Disappears After Lawsuit
Hollywood Strikes Back Against Illegal Streaming Kodi Add-Ons


Original Submission

Kodi Media Player Addon Developers Under Pressure from ACE, Dish Network 37 comments

According to TorrentFreak (TF) entertainment coalitions such as the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) are continuing to threaten developers of Kodi addons:

The MPA, Netflix, Amazon, and dozens of other content companies are ramping up the pressure on a third-party Kodi addon developer. Last year, JSergio123 was warned by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment to cease his activities and sign a confidential settlement agreement. He did not and now he's coming under pressure to comply. But what are ACE's demands?

[...] JSergio123's reluctance to sign an agreement with ACE hasn't gone unnoticed by the anti-piracy group. In a letter dated March 5, 2018 and signed by Kelly Klaus of US-based lawfirm Munger, Tolles & Olson, the developer is reminded of what transpired last year and what is expected of him moving forward.

"I understand that ACE counsel have discussed with you various of your "Addon" software applications and related software and services, including URLResolver (collectively, the "[redacted] Addons") and other actions you have undertaken to induce and contribute to the mass infringement of the ACE members' copyrighted works," Klaus writes. "I also understand that ACE counsel have provided you with a proposed settlement agreement, pursuant to which you would end your infringing activities and provide cooperation and other consideration in exchange for ACE agreeing not to pursue legal action against you arising out of your infringing activities. To date, you have not signed the settlement agreement."

JSergio123's precise reasons for not signing the settlement agreement aren't being made public. However, TorrentFreak understands that some of the terms presented to addon developers last year have caused considerable concern. In some cases they are difficult to meet, not to mention unpalatable to the people involved. They include promises to ensure that specified addons and indeed any developed in the future can no longer infringe copyright. For those that scrape third-party sources, this could prove impossible to absolutely guarantee. This could effectively put developers out of the addon game – legitimate or otherwise – for good. TF is also informed that ACE demanded a high-level of cooperation, including that the developers should supply what amounts to a full confession, detailing all the projects they've been involved in, past and present.

Meanwhile, Dish Network is continuing to pursue a lawsuit against TVAddons and ZemTV.

Related: MPAA Chief Focuses Attention on the Kodi Platform
Kodi Panic in the UK and Popularity in North America
Kodi Add-on Library "TVAddons" Disappears After Lawsuit
Hollywood Strikes Back Against Illegal Streaming Kodi Add-Ons
Kodi Returns to its Roots With an Xbox One Release
Two New Lawsuits Against Makers of "Pirate Streaming Devices"


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by TheGratefulNet on Friday March 30 2018, @04:27AM (2 children)

    by TheGratefulNet (659) on Friday March 30 2018, @04:27AM (#660283)

    more or less, there are a handful of search engines. they control a LOT of power.

    if they decide to block X or Y or write 'special code' that cases things differently because .. politics .. then there's all the proof you need that they are being bought/bribed/threatened and are totally off the 'do no evil' course.

    concentration of power to only a few does this.

    and we all saw it happen, too. not that we could do a thing to stop it, but its a trainwreck happening right before our eyes. if you have been around from the early days (when NNTP was the 'thing' and the web was not), you may remember that there was not one single control point for info flow. now, pretty much, the few are the gatekeepers and they control what we are allowed to see, read and ultimately, think.

    I'm betting the next generation will have an 'internet' that is nothing like what we now have. ie, it will suck so badly, it will be like TV is now. utter trash, controlled by the few, with an agenda.

    --
    "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    • (Score: 3, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday March 30 2018, @07:16AM

      by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Friday March 30 2018, @07:16AM (#660303) Journal

      Butbutbutbut I thought FREELY-ENTERED CONTRACTS would PREVENT such a thing!!!1111eleventy! After all, the AC who keeps changing his subject line said as much, and he's so confident and so consistent that he MUST be correct!

      --
      I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
    • (Score: 2) by darkfeline on Saturday March 31 2018, @03:54AM

      by darkfeline (1030) on Saturday March 31 2018, @03:54AM (#660712) Homepage

      Yes, they have the power to prevent people who type "kod" from autocompleting to "kodi". The horror!

      You do realize that the Internet predates search engines? You're free to stop using search engines, it's not like URLs and hyperlinks stop working if you don't use a search engine.

      Also, there are a lot of search engines (Wikipedia has a list). I fail to see how anyone can hold a search engine monopoly; it's not like if Google gets 99% of the traffic all other search engines get blocked from the Internet. You can use both Google and Gigablast. Heck, even at the same time, to search for the same terms! (I'm embarrassed to even suggest such an obscene act; using two search engines at the same time? Two! At the same time! One more and you get an orgy!)

      The ISPs are a much bigger threat than Google. Google cannot censor anything. ISPs can censor everything.

      How such a poorly written FUD post is at 5 Insightful is beyond me.

      --
      Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
  • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday March 30 2018, @04:50AM (17 children)

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Friday March 30 2018, @04:50AM (#660286) Homepage Journal

    Link to its website. The text of your link should be relevant terms

    It's even better if you deep link to pages that are in its site rather than just its homepage

    That makes the whole site more robust against fluctuations in popularity of particular words

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
    • (Score: 4, Informative) by jmorris on Friday March 30 2018, @06:11AM (16 children)

      by jmorris (4844) on Friday March 30 2018, @06:11AM (#660289)

      You aren't paying attention. This is deliberate manual intervention in the results, not normal SEO nonsense. Google is Evil. They have been for some time now, they censor a lot of stuff on their search, news and Youtube properties. They aren't YET doing like Microsoft and searching for crimethink in Google Docs and personal emails but they will.

      Cut. The. Cord.

      Most people can't entirely sever Google from their devices, but you can switch to a search engine that doesn't censor, move you email and begin consciously making the effort to minimize Google's impact on your daily life and minimize how much of your personal information they suck up.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @06:38AM (4 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @06:38AM (#660295)

        a search engine that doesn't censor

        Should I google for that? I haven't found one yet. YaCy is the closest, but it doesn't really work that well.

        • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @06:59AM (3 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @06:59AM (#660298)

          DuckDuckGo is pretty good. But yeah we all need to "cut the cord". We need to except that we alone control what we do with our personal info and that if we ultimately don't like what is done with it or don't like the service that we are given in exange for it that we can choose to find another one. I cut all ties to google three years back. Deleted my account, started using other services, and installed a custom ROM on my phone that didn't include Gapps. I'm happy I did.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @06:43PM (2 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @06:43PM (#660470)

            DDG is just a search engine aggregator that claims to remove 'personal' info. It is still 'powered' by the big boys. I wouldn't trust them any more than anybody else. Why, you might ask? Lo and behold, a cookie, and no milk! What could be more cruel? Sorry, the whole idea of trust is out the window. I like the idea of running my own crawler that I can choose to share or not. Thing is I need to run the crawler very discreetly to avoid looking like an attack. Kinda means I need my own local DNS too :-)

      • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday March 30 2018, @07:12AM

        by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Friday March 30 2018, @07:12AM (#660301) Homepage Journal

        Google can't manually interfere with everything.

        --
        Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
      • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday March 30 2018, @07:14AM (9 children)

        by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Friday March 30 2018, @07:14AM (#660302) Homepage Journal

        I'll be happy to use DuckDuckGo all the time when the day comes that I don't have to switch from DuckDuckGo to Google because I can't find something important by praying to The Duck.

        --
        Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
        • (Score: 3, Informative) by Spamalope on Friday March 30 2018, @01:10PM (2 children)

          by Spamalope (5233) on Friday March 30 2018, @01:10PM (#660351) Homepage

          Has Duck started it's own search system? It was an aggregator when I first looked, so censoring will affect them too.

          • (Score: 2) by takyon on Friday March 30 2018, @03:36PM (1 child)

            by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday March 30 2018, @03:36PM (#660406) Journal

            Censoring autocomplete is different from censoring results:

            https://www.google.com/search?q=kodi [google.com]

            --
            [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
            • (Score: 3, Interesting) by HiThere on Friday March 30 2018, @06:20PM

              by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 30 2018, @06:20PM (#660459) Journal

              Your point is good and valid... and the other comments are reacting to implicit threats, and taken in that sense also valid.

              --
              Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
        • (Score: 2) by mrpg on Friday March 30 2018, @06:13PM (4 children)

          by mrpg (5708) Subscriber Badge <reversethis-{gro ... yos} {ta} {gprm}> on Friday March 30 2018, @06:13PM (#660456) Homepage

          That happened to me for a week and then I decided to use https://www.startpage.com/ [startpage.com]

          • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday March 30 2018, @06:22PM (3 children)

            by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 30 2018, @06:22PM (#660460) Journal

            Why? What does it do? The link looks just like a base google page with a pretty background.

            If I want to link to sites I frequently go to, I already don't use google. I've got a panel of bookmarks that's a lot more convenient.

            --
            Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
            • (Score: 2) by mrpg on Friday March 30 2018, @07:54PM (2 children)

              by mrpg (5708) Subscriber Badge <reversethis-{gro ... yos} {ta} {gprm}> on Friday March 30 2018, @07:54PM (#660505) Homepage

              It gives better results than duckduckgo.
              https://www.startpage.com/uk/protect-privacy.html [startpage.com]

              • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday March 30 2018, @10:22PM (1 child)

                by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 30 2018, @10:22PM (#660561) Journal

                How is it different from just using Google?

                --
                Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
                • (Score: 4, Informative) by toddestan on Friday March 30 2018, @10:41PM

                  by toddestan (4982) on Friday March 30 2018, @10:41PM (#660576)

                  It's more of an anti-tracking thing. You type your query into Startpage, Startpage goes and searches Google and gives you the results back, so (at least in theory) the big G doesn't know what you searched for. But other than that, it's just Google search.

        • (Score: 3, Informative) by toddestan on Friday March 30 2018, @10:52PM

          by toddestan (4982) on Friday March 30 2018, @10:52PM (#660585)

          I've been using DuckDuckGo for a long time now, it's been a good while since I've had any luck finding something on Google when the Duck comes up empty. If I can't find something on DuckDuckGo, I've found the only thing Google seems to be good at is wasting my time with endless pages of garbage search results.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @06:28AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @06:28AM (#660293)
    Not like those 4 letters are that hard to type, even on a phone. When I search for kody I still find kodi.tv at the top. Same for kodi. Not for kodee though (which is the name of something else).

    kodi.tv is still the top hit for: open source home theatre software and opensource media center software.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @07:04AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @07:04AM (#660299)

    Normies don't deserve anything besides staying in a corporate feedlot, it is both for their protection and as well as anyone outside the normiesphere. They have incompatible values and should never be allowed to interact. Doing so merely brings conflict, nothing good comes of it.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday March 30 2018, @07:18AM (1 child)

      by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Friday March 30 2018, @07:18AM (#660304) Journal

      We were all newbies if not normies once. Why not attempt to educate the more tractable ones?

      --
      I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @07:51AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @07:51AM (#660309)

        How about no, let them explore and come to their own conclusions. Let the wild parts of the internet stay wild for people with fortitude, the others can live in the "civilized" part of the internet.
        Its the internet, not a border dispute, there is no limited physical space to fight over.

  • (Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Friday March 30 2018, @08:23AM (3 children)

    by opinionated_science (4031) on Friday March 30 2018, @08:23AM (#660311)

    4503599627370495 to go.

    (Maths joke).

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @10:22AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @10:22AM (#660329)

      pFFFFFFFFFFFFFt

    • (Score: 2) by Zinho on Friday March 30 2018, @02:53PM (1 child)

      by Zinho (759) on Friday March 30 2018, @02:53PM (#660385)

      One down... [2^52 -1] to go.
      (Maths joke).

      I'm fairly mathy, but I fail to see the humor in that number. Is there something funny about 52 as a power that I'm not getting?

      --
      "Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
  • (Score: 1) by ealbers on Friday March 30 2018, @10:18AM (1 child)

    by ealbers (5715) on Friday March 30 2018, @10:18AM (#660328)

    You should use ddg.gg or duckduckgo.com to search, do NOT use anything related to google.

    • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @03:57PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @03:57PM (#660412)

      it's a shame ddg sucks so damn bad.

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