2016-01-06, 22:26
A couple of disturbing statements were made in another thread:
And
I'm on a phone and using cut and paste, but the first one comes from da-and a and the second comes from MrMC/Davilla.
To reply to this:
That's absurd. I don't mean any disrespect, but you two know better than this. You guys were there when these things happened.
Before Android, the Apple TV 2 was the "fully loaded" king of eBay. Even older devices like the ATV1 and older miniPCs were starting the eBay flood. If Android never came to be, and the ATV2 still died off, cheap x86 hardware (some as low as $60 for new hardware) is currently filling the market. Plus, we still have the Raspberry Pi line.
Cheap hardware was only part of the equation. File locker sites like MegaUpload had exploded as a way to pirate movies and shows independently of XBMC/Kodi. They got shut down, but even more sites filled their place. Pirate/bootleg add-ons had always existed, but only in small numbers, until this wealth of content showed up.
At the same time, add-ons that were using such sites were banned from the XBMC/Kodi websites. This was a good thing, but this created a bunch of little splinter groups, many of which thought it was a good idea to actively promote XBMC/Kodi as a way to get free content. No one was there to discourage that, but it might not have made a difference. There is big money to be made with the high web traffic that those sites get.
Many factors played a part in the piracy explosion (it has always been an issue, but just in a smaller scale). It's foolish to think that Android caused it, or not porting/dropping it would have stopped it. Kodi has a great interface with a flexible Python add-on system, and even pirates like nice things. A damn good program was made, and when we start thinking of ways to nerf it to "fight piracy" then we become no better than an industry that likes to block mkv files and use DRM. It does nothing to fix the problem and just punishes the legitimate users.
Quote:what I wanted to say is that from the perspective that we want users to have a good Kodi and media experience, that dropping Android support wouldn't be a bad decision. In addition it would also get rid of the annoying flood of Piracy-Android-Box support questions on the forum which I really can't stand anymore. Now being an Android-Box user myself because of Netflix and Prime, it would ofc be a pitty to loose it. And the misuse done by all the box vendors and sellers that want to make a quick dime with Kodi and piracy add-ons is not the fault of the Android platform in itself, but only Androids "success" as SmartTV replacement (for what reason ever people consider stock Android launchers with bad air-mice remotes as worth buying).
side note: I ofc don't have a cheap ass chinese box with cluncky air-mouse remotes and terrible UI but something decent
And
Quote:also wanted to add, that if I knew now what would happen in porting Kodi for Android, I would have never done the port. I think that port has done more to damage the reputation of Kodi (pirates and parasites) as a whole than any other action.
I'm on a phone and using cut and paste, but the first one comes from da-and a and the second comes from MrMC/Davilla.
To reply to this:
That's absurd. I don't mean any disrespect, but you two know better than this. You guys were there when these things happened.
Before Android, the Apple TV 2 was the "fully loaded" king of eBay. Even older devices like the ATV1 and older miniPCs were starting the eBay flood. If Android never came to be, and the ATV2 still died off, cheap x86 hardware (some as low as $60 for new hardware) is currently filling the market. Plus, we still have the Raspberry Pi line.
Cheap hardware was only part of the equation. File locker sites like MegaUpload had exploded as a way to pirate movies and shows independently of XBMC/Kodi. They got shut down, but even more sites filled their place. Pirate/bootleg add-ons had always existed, but only in small numbers, until this wealth of content showed up.
At the same time, add-ons that were using such sites were banned from the XBMC/Kodi websites. This was a good thing, but this created a bunch of little splinter groups, many of which thought it was a good idea to actively promote XBMC/Kodi as a way to get free content. No one was there to discourage that, but it might not have made a difference. There is big money to be made with the high web traffic that those sites get.
Many factors played a part in the piracy explosion (it has always been an issue, but just in a smaller scale). It's foolish to think that Android caused it, or not porting/dropping it would have stopped it. Kodi has a great interface with a flexible Python add-on system, and even pirates like nice things. A damn good program was made, and when we start thinking of ways to nerf it to "fight piracy" then we become no better than an industry that likes to block mkv files and use DRM. It does nothing to fix the problem and just punishes the legitimate users.
