[Micatech]

Thank you Karellin,
                         You have been very helpful.
Re some of your questions. I am in Australia and would love to watch maltese TV. They only have about 4 TV stations but all are streamed to web. I just view them on my laptop and would be nice to have them available via Kodi.

Here is a sample link :-  https://www.tvm.com.mt/mt/live/

Once again thanks for your help.

Larry

[kimkl]

Copyright law
As of 2016, the U.S., belong to the Berne Convention.
The Berne Convention says that the scope and limitations of any copyright are based on the laws of the country where the misuse of the copyright-protected work takes place (rather than the country where the work originated).

Going by that, no one outside the US would be braking the law by making a "backup" of their Blu-Ray or DVD, but heres the fun part, seems Kodi is breaking their own rules by "helping" people who are having trouble playing, or listening to music or watching a Movie, because online radio streaming music is a no no in the US because no royalties are paid, haha okay i am sorry but this is to good to let go, while i aggree with the forum guidelines, some are a bit "only in America" and after reading tons of pages on US copyright law "because Kodi states

Kodi's Official Forum Piracy Policy
"All discussions dealing directly with or linking to add-ons, websites, or services that violate US copyright laws"

Well by having a Video support forum and dicussion problems, Kodi is in violation of US law because is the DVD protection was broken its illegal, and lets face it how else are you going to get it down on your hard drive, its legal in most of Europe to make a personal Copy, not in the US

And Kodi can play your nicely ripped blu-ray or DVD which is fine in most countries exept the US who are still thinking about that one haha i am sorry but that is totally hilarious.
Okay i am done for now, but i had to get this out, because i feel KODI is putting to much on US law, and since the copyright law in the US is supject to state laws WHICH MOST COUNTRIES DO NOT HAVE its kinda "what a bull does after eating in the woods" because lets face it most people are sick and tired of the "US Police force" and i personally get sick when i read that water boarding is not torture in the US, "water boarding is holding a person down on his back putting a cloth over his mouth and then pour water over his mouth, and its what the US use to get a person to confess, but just to add a twist its done with a medic present so when the person dies from drowning he is brought back to life by the medics and then it starts over again, but its not torture, i aggree its SICK and twisted. to kill a person and then revive him then drown him again

And why am i writing this in the cupyright law discussion, because i take offence to being told that
"All discussions dealing directly with or linking to add-ons, websites, or services that violate US copyright laws"

I do not live in  the US and thank god for that, what KODI should have wrote was that
Kodi's Official Forum Piracy Policy
"All discussions dealing directly with or linking to add-ons, websites, or services that violate copyright laws in your country"

because as KODI so often writes they do not tell people how to use KODI and never will, come again and what do you call the above.
Well atleast free speach allows me to post my views without fear of OUCH stop that, no not a joke but another thing i seen to often.

But still the TK does an excellent job no doubt about that i just wish they would stop telling people how to live, and god forbid you do not post a debug.log then you get no help, has anyone read the wiki it says people are encourage to provide a debug.log but i have seen "mods" bash the heck out of people without a debug.log even being extreamly rude and putting them down.
The worst i saw was a user mocking another user for his post, and getting him mad, then a mod logged on and gave him a warning, fair enough if you diregarde the fact that the user and the "mod" was the same person.

i was speechless and i can't be the only one who knew that the "mod" and user was the same some of the other TK surely must have known, why is this permitted.
ofc the user with the warning got even more mad and wrote he wanted his account deleted, which another "mod" said with mockery no problem by.
I am sorry but what the heck.

i still get a sick feeling thing about that, and i keep my post to a minimum because, and yes i know what a blessing and delight.
I bet i will get a lot of hate mail now stating this and that or most likely my post gets thrashed, for being what ever

Fine i do not mind i just hope someone other that me thinks that bashing another user even if his post was junk and then logging on with your "god account" and giving the mad hatter a warning is not okay ny nomeans but it happen some 3-4 months ago so why did i not report it, well i could write 10 pages why not, but i think its clear to everyone.

But okay the "mods" have a hard time, and not a paying job.
But still there is no excuse for that behaviour
Thank you and if you feel i went OT i aggree but i see no point in making several threads on these matters.

feel free to comment if you disagree i will not comment my self. i hope my reply is read before its burned thx

[DarrenHill]

The key points here is user choice and responsibilities.

Kodi itself is a media player, nothing more and nothing less. Fundamentally it's up to the user where they get their media from, be it rips, making it themselves, streaming or even some dodgy pirate site. But what we insist is they know exactly what they are doing, and what that may entail legally or morally. If they get into trouble it's down to them, not us.

Hence why we draw a line between them playing whatever they like and them using a modified Kodi (via add-on installation) to make movies and TV shows "magically appear for free". If we supported all such banned addons (wiki) we would be complicit in the piracy, which we have no wish to do.

This is also why we hate both builds and most of the YouTube "tutorials", as they either take away that conscious user decision, or they hide or distort exactly what is being done and where stuff is coming from and what exactly it is.

But also the user has to take responsibility for their own actions, to echo my opening point. There is nothing more irritating than people coming here when their piracy add-ons cease working and they can't watch stuff that any small grain of common sense would say they shouldn't have free access to anyway. But somehow human greed combined with the internet turns people into mindless zombies who will take it without a thought of the risks that may be involved or of any repercussions from what is basically theft. Yes ridiculing such people may not be nice, but if they didn't act so stupidly they wouldn't be there.

As to the other points, no mod/admin has a second account here, except in a few cases for testing purposes and those accounts are clearly named and aren't used for non-test posting. But if people think anyone (user or team member) is acting poorly they can report it either using a post, the report buttons in threads or via pm. It will then be reviewed and actioned if appropriate. I certainly wouldn't say it's impossible that one of the team occasionally oversteps the mark, but in the end we're as human as anyone - even me apparently

[jjd-uk]

Kodi's Official Forum Piracy Policy
"All discussions dealing directly with or linking to add-ons, websites, or services that violate US copyright laws"

The reason for that is because the XBMC Foundation which is the legal entity that any legal action would be taken against for any copyright issues is registered in the US, in addition the majority of companies that give us free server hosting are based in the US so again subject to US law.

[jjd-uk]

When the Rules were formulated, with media you own then even in the US you are free to back it up, however it's illegal to break the DRM protecting any media such DVD's. We have no knowledge of whether you've broken DRM then any discussion is fine regarding playback, as long as you don't asking about how to break the DRM.

[natethomas]

One of these days a user is going to second guess how we wrote these piracy rules and actually be right. I believe this, because I already know that there's one glaring thing wrong with them. That day has not yet come.

[Memphiz]

I definitely want to here more about waterboarding. Still unsure how this topic is related to our anti piracy stance.

[Av3nged]

One of these days a user is going to second guess how we wrote these piracy rules and actually be right. I believe this, because I already know that there's one glaring thing wrong with them. That day has not yet come.

challenge accepted

[tjay260476]

It only includes the forum? It doesn’t include the website, wiki and repo......

Last paragraph I see!

[threshold84]

According to this article, sites distributing user contributed subtitles were considered infringing. It happened in the past as well, so definitely not the first time. Have you ever considered having subtitles addons banned, then blacklisted?

https://torrentfreak.com/greek-isps-orde...ay-181109/

Sites of the example are subtitles.gr, subztv.club, greeksubtitles.info.

[MB32]

even in the US you are free to back it up, however it's illegal to break the DRM protecting any media such DVD's.

I am not in the habit of ripping DVD's, but I would like people to understand the difference between illegal and unlawful: While it may be illegal to break the DRM protection on a DVD which you already own, it's unlikely that a regulation of this nature would pass constitutional muster, and hold up to a proper challenge in the supreme court.

One of these days a user is going to second guess how we wrote these piracy rules and actually be right.

But it does not matter if the user is right here: they can still be punished by moderators who are wrong, and it happens routinely. I know of add-ons which are non-infringing, and the mention of them is still forbidden.

[tjay260476]

Some addons are none infringing, yes but if they are in a banned repo then those addons are banned too.

[DarrenHill]

In the end it's our site, our rules and they are interpreted and enforced as we decide and see fit.

But that only extends to our sites/channels and any support we may offer. We do not dictate how users actually use Kodi, nor do we blacklist, block or ban any 3rd party add-ons from running in Kodi. All we do is reserve the right on what we choose to support and allow discussion of here. If any user wants to use Kodi for illegal, unlawful, immoral or any other purpose that's up to them, but all we ask is that they acknowledge that they do so of their own free will and by conscious decision, and that any repercussions or issues that may happen as a result are entirely their own fault and responsibility.

[DarrenHill]

Some addons are none infringing, yes but if they are in a banned repo then those addons are banned too.

That's not normally true - it's the converse that is correct (any repo containing a banned addon (wiki) is also itself banned, even if there are also legitimate addons in it).

There are one or two specific case exceptions where certain individuals have been deemed persona non grata in our community here due to actions they have done, and there any repo or add-on that they have produced is banned.

But those are extremely rare cases, indeed I can only think of one in recent times.

[tjay260476]

Thanks for the clarification @DarrenHill