[ronbaby]

F.C.C. Proposes Changes in Cable Set-Top Box Market

[Bahndit]

Interesting read. Thanks for sharing. It will be fun to see what happens if they vote in favor for this.

[cd2022]

I cut the cord 4 months ago and never looked back, I use STBs rental (2 x $9.99/month) to pay for Amazon and Netflix. Hook up an antenna for local channels. Happy camper.

[natethomas]

I think this will have very little, if anything, to do with Kodi in the end, because the proposal itself still pushes DRM and other forms of security first and foremost, regardless of how totally useless those things are. It might make it easier to setup an HD Homerun? Maybe?

[ronbaby]

I think this will have very little, if anything, to do with Kodi in the end, because the proposal itself still pushes DRM and other forms of security first and foremost, regardless of how totally useless those things are. It might make it easier to setup an HD Homerun? Maybe?

Well, obviously, the FCC is trying to cut off a piece of the pie (or the gravy train, depending on your point of view) take it away from the cable operators and give it instead to Amazon, Google, and Apple... because the cable operators are obviously being predatory anti-competitive dickheads and charging outrageous fees for what should be very cheap boxes.

Ultimately, what the FCC may try to do is to work out some rules that insure that the piece of the pie they slice off will only end up in the pockets of the other ultra-behemoth corporations they intend to give it to (i.e. Apple, Google, and Amazon, and maybe a couple of others), but the question arises: What if they seriously open things up so that smaller industry players can jump in?

If that happens, then a different question arises: Could some small player come along, build a cheap STB, and put a modified version of Kodi on it that was DRM aware/capable?

What, if anything, would prevent somebody from doing that? Would the Kodi license allow it?

This kind of scenario seems more than plausible to me. Hell! If I burrow down into the setup menus on both my TV and also my Blu-Ray player I find GNU (copyleft) software licenses. The implication is that hardware manufacturers know a good deal when they see one, and reducing their software development costs by just adapting free software, rather than building software from scratch is obviously a hell of a lot cheaper. Kodi is free software, so why wouldn't an intelligent company trying to build a new, cheap, quick-to-market STB use it?

Personally, I am not aware of anything that would make it either impossible or excessively costly to simply bolt DRM onto a custom version of Kodi.

[Atreyu]

Interestimg read, thanks.
DRM&Kodi, sounds so paradoxal ;-)

[noggin]

Personally, I am not aware of anything that would make it either impossible or excessively costly to simply bolt DRM onto a custom version of Kodi.

The code used for the DRM would, presumably, need to be OpenSource if incorporated within Kodi, to avoid GPL issues. However if the TV back-end were separate, and a PVR interface provided, then that would allow it to be GPL-friendly. However that would also give Kodi access to de-DRMed content, which may mean it is less useful as a DRM tool? (This is like hardware CAMs in DVB tuners I guess?)

There is presumably also a way of adding DRM code to Kodi in a GPL compliant manner (if you don't mind people being able to see how your DRM is implemented?)