[j1nx]

A few day ban maybe?

while you may think our concerns are 'funny', we do take this very seriously.
we have very strict and clear rules about piracy and privacy.

the code you've put in tvtunes isn't even remotely acceptable by any means.
we are deeply ashamed we've let this slip into both our repo and our forum.
i can only hope no user has ever used that functionality.


you are now permanently banned for facilitating piracy and a brutal violation of our users privacy.

Seriously?

Considering the whole timeline of events, this is how you want to end the whole debate/discussion?

Is this a well thought (team) decision or again maybe something made in an emotional state? Because I am very surprised about it. Don't get me wrong, if it is the Team's decision to end this whole debate because of that lines of code, by all means, we have all learned by now; These are "your" forums..

But the "wording" and an immediate life time ban, might again start a whole new pissing contest about the dictatorship of certain mods. Just saying...

[Mike_Doc]

Hello,

Firstly, I do not wish this topic to be taken off-topic with regards to the recent decision made in regards to robweset addons / repo etc.

I don't want to appear to be dragging on the recent discussion which now appears to be concluded, I'm just asking for some additional clarification on the situation that now exists due to the decision that has been taken.

What I would like to ask Team Kodi is that it has now been decided that Rob's addons are now treated as banned addons, so will any user who now asks for help with regards to an unrelated issue be given the same standard forum response as if for example they had Exodus or whatever installed into their Kodi configuration. If a log file is found to have any of theses addons then how would that user be treated? Would they effectively be refused help now for having any of Rob's add-ons installed in their configuration?

Also, I now that several skins, including my own have integrated certain addons from Rob, i.e. TVTunes, is this now a problem for skins that have this integration of these now banned addons? Integration was already there with regards to my skin but even so integration will exist in some skins / mods and I would like clarification on this and if there is now a negative impact on these skins / mods due to this recent decision on these add-ons.

@ronie, can I ask what you found in TVTunes that was damning to warrant the decision? what is it actually doing with regards to piracy and privacy?

Will it be required that any integration will have to be removed for these skins / mods to continue to use these forums or will there be any leeway of things using these now banned add-ons? Would we be required to inform users of the integration and they use so at their own risk?

I'm just trying to see if there is now any additional impact on other areas of Kodi due to the decision on these addons that existed here for quite a time and have a user base already?

Thank you for time.

Mike.

[ronie]

threads merged...

please keep things central, we don't want to end up in a situation again
where the same issue is being discussed across 4 or 5 different threads across the forum.

[Mike_Doc]

Ok, thanks Ronie and apologies. Wasn't sure if it should be separate or not.

[Pasado]

So this is how kodi works:
-find an issue
-make a mess about it
-when peoples finally try to solve it, you just find a new one
-do not let them the time to answer
-banned them

Special price to phil65:
-saying peoples do not want to cooperate when they did it (according info that had been given to them) just before his post
-btw, if your only interest is to have it in kodi's repo: just fork them yourself (but you probably are busy not solving reported bug in estuary)

Seems like I'm ready for my few days ban...

+1 Kodi Mods, taking the community out of Kodi

[jjd-uk]

We had serious concerns about privacy and piracy concerns in regards to the TVTunes add-on.

This allows TVTunes to track users machines https://github.com/robwebset/script.tvtu...gs.py#L593

This is obfuscated code https://github.com/robwebset/script.tvtu...gs.py#L589 which is an encrypted url pointing to a config file which gets downloaded to the users device, and this in turns downloads an encrypted file, all of this is done in the background without the user knowing or being asked permission. This encrypted file contains credentials to a server that allows users to upload mp3 files, however what the user won't know is that before these files are uploaded the filename gets tagged with the users mac address from the user tracking TVTunes does.

So the main concern is that this user tracking is going on without the user ever being made aware of it and that files are being downloaded from servers in the background without the users knowledge. This alone is grounds for support to no longer be allowed on these forums, since users will tend to have more trust in anything discussed on the Kodi forum than elsewhere. We must do what we can to maintain that trust, so we cannot in good conscience permit our users to be exposed in this way without their knowledge and consent.

The piracy concern comes from the fact that the server the files can be uploaded to is running a BitTorrent service, although we can't state with any certainty these files are being shared, it certainly doesn't look good to us.

This is just the latest in a long line things such that the Team feels there can be no trust in what these add-ons do, so even if the above was corrected we simply don't have the manpower to continually monitor them to make sure nothing further got slipped back in at some point afterwards.

[kimkl]

Well that is a serious problem.
BUT i bet most Young World of Warcraft Gamers here do not know that Blizzard does similar stuff ALL your browsing history and "meaning what you look at on the web, if you visit sites with "What Young Boys Might look at" your online shopping all that is send to Blizzard Every time you fire up the Bnet App.
Blizzards Reply to that, Well its so we can give you a better Browsing experience and show you stuff to buy.
I never agreed to Blizzard putting a Cookie on my PC using the Bnet app have still not found the text in the EULA where i agree to that
ohh don't bother deleting it it will be back.
Now Blizzard Calls it a Cookie i call it a Virus. And no longer play WoW
So if these findings in TV Tunes doing this i would be very upset and use words i will not post here i am very protective about my privacy and never would give out my Mac IP DXDIAG freely
So i hope we can get updates from kodi about what else lurks if any and this is true

[Gracus]

We had serious concerns about privacy and piracy concerns in regards to the TVTunes add-on.

This allows TVTunes to track users machines https://github.com/robwebset/script.tvtu...gs.py#L593

This is obfuscated code https://github.com/robwebset/script.tvtu...gs.py#L589 which is an encrypted url pointing to a config file which gets downloaded to the users device, and this in turns downloads an encrypted file, all of this is done in the background without the user knowing or being asked permission. This encrypted file contains credentials to a server that allows users to upload mp3 files, however what the user won't know is that before these files are uploaded the filename gets tagged with the users mac address from the user tracking TVTunes does.

So the main concern is that this user tracking is going on without the user ever being made aware of it and that files are being downloaded from servers in the background without the users knowledge. This alone is grounds for support to no longer be allowed on these forums, since users will tend to have more trust in anything discussed on the Kodi forum than elsewhere. We must do what we can to maintain that trust, so we cannot in good conscience permit our users to be exposed in this way without their knowledge and consent.

The piracy concern comes from the fact that the server the files can be uploaded to is running a BitTorrent service, although we can't state with any certainty these files are being shared, it certainly doesn't look good to us.

This is just the latest in a long line things such that the Team feels there can be no trust in what these add-ons do, so even if the above was corrected we simply don't have the manpower to continually monitor them to make sure nothing further got slipped back in at some point afterwards.

I will trust you on this matter as I am not able to check myself about encrypted things

So now I understand why kodi team does not want this addon to be discussed on the forum and why it is the same for other robwebset addons being on the same repository (even if it could have been good to have robwebset comment on this)

But I still do not understand why he has been banned
Maybe Exo*** maker has an account here that should also be banned
Or maybe I am myself a piracy addon maker...

[misa]

When team Kodi has serious concerns about privacy and piracy addons, should they still accept Minix as a sponsor? Think about that but think deep and take a look at there forum and who is the big developer there and what's he promoting.

[Ned Scott]

The piracy concern comes from the fact that the server the files can be uploaded to is running a BitTorrent service, although we can't state with any certainty these files are being shared, it certainly doesn't look good to us.

It is really sad that this was a factor at all. The assumption of malice is so strong that you guys will ban someone for having BitTorrent ran from a server that is also being use to download theme song mp3s as "facilitating piracy". Using the BitTorrent protocol doesn't suddenly turn something into piracy. Are you out of your minds? Has all critical thinking been put on hold?

[kimkl]

I Would like to petition That the Ban is Lifted for a Day of kodi Staff's choosing and let Rob Comment and if these findings stand up Explain him self he has been with you for a long Time and not giving him the opportunity To Redeem himself or Confess is not Acceptable no matter what goes on between Rob and Ronie.

You can't hang a Man who has not been given the chance to Explain himself
If you choose to deny this well, good by kodi hello plex
But i believe he will be given an opportunity to Explain him self and if the findings does what kodi claims

An official Thread on this would be welcome i bet not many check this thread because they know Rob is banned so why look
Thank You

[jjd-uk]

The assumption of malice is so strong that you guys will ban someone for having BitTorrent ran from a server that is also being use to download theme song mp3s as "facilitating piracy". Using the BitTorrent protocol doesn't suddenly turn something into piracy. Are you out of your minds? Has all critical thinking been put on hold?

You completely avoid the fact that the way the tracking of users was handled was the primary issue here.

[Pasado]

I Would like to petition That the Ban is Lifted for a Day of kodi Staff's choosing and let Rob Comment and if these findings stand up Explain him self he has been with you for a long Time and not giving him the opportunity To Redeem himself or Confess is not Acceptable no matter what goes on between Rob and Ronie.

You can't hang a Man who has not been given the chance to Explain himself
If you choose to deny this well, good by kodi hello plex
But i believe he will be given an opportunity to Explain him self and if the findings does what kodi claims

An official Thread on this would be welcome i bet not many check this thread because they know Rob is banned so why look
Thank You

+1

[Pasado]

The assumption of malice is so strong that you guys will ban someone for having BitTorrent ran from a server that is also being use to download theme song mp3s as "facilitating piracy". Using the BitTorrent protocol doesn't suddenly turn something into piracy. Are you out of your minds? Has all critical thinking been put on hold?

You completely avoid the fact that the way the tracking of users was handled was the primary issue here.

This is the first time I and maybe others have heard about this "tracking of users" issue or is this just a new plot in this latest drama!

[Ned Scott]

The assumption of malice is so strong that you guys will ban someone for having BitTorrent ran from a server that is also being use to download theme song mp3s as "facilitating piracy". Using the BitTorrent protocol doesn't suddenly turn something into piracy. Are you out of your minds? Has all critical thinking been put on hold?

You completely avoid the fact that the way the tracking of users was handled was the primary issue here.

Not at all. I already commented on that. You provided information on the piracy part, and then I commented on that.

You guys found something that is honestly concerning, but you assumed it was malicious and banned him right off the bat. Apparently it is okay to do that so long as there are pre-existing frustrations with the user? Several times people have been found with tracking methods in their add-ons, and all nearly all of those times it was that the add-on author didn't understand the rules or concerns with such tracking. They were normally resolved without issue. That didn't happen this time, because of this assumption of malicious.

Ask yourself, what on earth would he have to gain from this data? What nefarious deeds would he do with finding out what theme songs people were accessing? Are there reasonable explanations for why he would do this from a technical standpoint?

This is its own issue, separate from the module ID conflict, separate from modifying keymaps, and separate from him removing his add-ons from the kodi.tv repo. Everything was slowly being handled, cleared up, but people kept digging for a reason to not let him back in. Frustration leading to an assumption of malice. It all fits when he's being painted as the "bad guy", I guess.