Kodi needs to go commercial
#16
(2017-07-13, 16:03)h.udo Wrote: If you're willing to "... gladly pay up to several hundred $" please donate. We can always buy more beer, pizza, peanuts, etc.

Code is always welcome to fix "ancient issues in the coding [that] aren't being tackled."

Well that's the whole point isn't it?

Donations are something entirely different from actually buying a product. When you buy a product, you buy it because it solves problems or satisfies needs that you have. When you donate you are just giving away money to support a product which may or may not end up doing what you want, entirely different thing.

Why would I submit code? I am not a coder, have no inclination to be one, and even if i did, I'd want to be paid to do so. See it all comes down to personal preference and what you consider "fun". I don't consider coding to be "fun", and I value my time too much to spend it on things I don't enjoy unless I'm getting paid to do so. On the other hand, I'm perfectly willing to pay for someone else to code something that solves a problem for me, or buy an existing product that does so. This concept isn't entirely unheard of really...

(2017-07-13, 18:33)PatK Wrote:
Quote:Otherwise what's the point of Kodi?
Although streaming video is one aspect of Kodi it's not the prime reason the program exists. I didn't think there was "bazillion streaming services" in the official repository, perhaps I miscounted, or more likely your priorities are skewed.

They aren't "skewed", they are what they are. I don't know if commercializing Kodi would open up more options to change those priorities, but i have a hard time believing that i'm the only one who wouldn't welcome more streamlined integration with streaming services like netflix, and the Kodi library, even if i'm the only one on this thread apparently ;-)

(2017-07-13, 18:33)PatK Wrote: -19 posts and feel you have contributed to skin development?


I'm not sure how you arrived at that conclusion. I freely admit to having contributed very little, if anything to the Kodi community. In fact, I am pretty much saying "hey, i don't have time for this, someone else do it, here's money!".

You see, I could just pay someone to make a skin for me, that would be fine. Maybe i could even hire someone to implement the features I'd like to see in Kodi. I can see that working out just fine for me, but wouldn't it be better if someone could develop those features or add-ons or skins or whatever, and actually be paid for their work? The result is the same as far as the customer goes (me in this example), but if these add ons could be sold to the public, then maybe someone else, other than me, could benefit from that product, and maybe the developer of said product could be paid more for their time than if i were to simply pay them once to do it, and then never again.

Win-win right?

Also, to the posters saying that Kodi is more inclined towards local libraries... Sure, that's fine, and Paypal was more inclined towards PDA's before they signed on for ebay payments. Where did you know Paypal from? Right... ebay payments. I'm not saying Kodi lacks significance without streaming services, not saying that at all... what I am saying is that the world is moving towards "the cloud" and away from the local storage.

I realize all this is a moot point as Kodi is an open source platform so commercializing it, or parts of it is pretty much impossible. (i'm totally open to stand corrected here, in fact please do correct me on this!)

(2017-07-13, 19:14)mchp92 Wrote: Kodi should NOT become a commercial product. Not becoz i wouldnt wana pay a few bucks for it. But because kodi would then likely become the umpteenth case of a brilliant product (conceived by a bunch of tech guys who just wana make the best of breed), becoming screwed over 10 times coz a band of marketing aholes wanna use every feature to squeeze the living daylights out of the user base. That would kill it. Nobody wants kodi to answer to a shareholder. Kodi needs to answer to its users only

Right well, I'm sure there a point to your negativity, but atm i can't see it.

(2017-07-13, 22:46)Bluesmanuk Wrote: I have another idea/

If the OP would gladly pay up to several hundred $ for a fully working, headache free version of Kodi, how about using that money on a coding course so that you can fix the issues.

Then, when he has made it perfect, he can make lots of money from all the media outlets clamouring for interviews.

But whilst my tongue is in cheek, I am being a tad unfair to the OP.

We are all different people and sociopaths will always of course, choose the route of most fortune, so we should have empathy for the diversity of human characteristics.

I'm sorry, i just have better things to do than write code for Kodi, and don't really care for glamour either way.

Man I knew making this post wouldn't get me any love, but I'm a sociopath now? I didn't realize that unpaid labor had such a vexing effect on people Big Grin

Any way, I can see that my posts are vexing people, and so I'll just go away now. I'm sure i can find someone willing to write some code for me and help me get the media player I want. It's just a shame it will never help anyone with the same needs/wants in the future.
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#17
A typical example of attitudes from the Profit Driven Society we now live in. If you are not making money off your efforts, then there must be something wrong with you.

I can safely assume that you never volunteer for anything in your local society.

A shame people can't step back and see the forest.
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#18
+1 karellen.
If I have helped you or increased your knowledge, click the 'thumbs up' button to give thanks :) (People with less than 20 posts won't see the "thumbs up" button.)
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#19
:thumbsup: @Karellen
Good answer
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#20
(2017-07-14, 00:29)Karellen Wrote: A typical example of attitudes from the Profit Driven Society we now live in. If you are not making money off your efforts, then there must be something wrong with you.

I can safely assume that you never volunteer for anything in your local society.

A shame people can't step back and see the forest.

Right, so where then would I find the examples of this non profit driven society that you are referring to? North Korea? China? Siberia? The amazon jungle native tribes? The former USSR perhaps? I have to tell you, that grass doesn't seem all that green...

ACTUALLY, I used to do quite a lot of charity work. I've stopped since several years as I don't typically have the time for it anymore, and I travel around a lot now. Fortunately I've found ways to help make a REAL difference in peoples lives, often free of charge! Although ironically, I have also found that I often do need to charge for my help, and charge quite a bit, in order to get a commitment out of them. It seems that people just aren't that committed when the help is free, as opposed to having a wad of money on the line. So sometimes I'll do a refund, sometimes not, it doesn't matter in the end... teach a man to fish... and all that.

Seriously though... what's the point of this anyways? Kodi can't be commercialized. Obviously this community spits at the very idea. So yeah, agree to disagree, keep on truckin! I'll just find someone to code some of the stuff i wanted in Kodi.
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#21
You see examples of this society here, and in every other piece of open source software. Hell the internet wouldn't even work if it weren't for the Linux kernel and gnu userland that runs most of the infrastructure.

I see it in my own profession all the time, where lawyers do stuff pro Bono, or for less than a commercial rate, as some people just need and deserve help.

So please don't try and tell us how our community should be run.

You are of course welcome to find and pay a Dev to improve Kodi. Just like big companies pay programmers to contribute to the Linux kernel, and the code benefits everyone. Your paid contributions will become part of the greater good.
If I have helped you or increased your knowledge, click the 'thumbs up' button to give thanks :) (People with less than 20 posts won't see the "thumbs up" button.)
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#22
Quote:I'm sorry, i just have better things to do than write code for Kodi

And in that statement; Instantly demeaning the hard effort that all the developers have done...

I'm sorry, go away we have better things to do than read your selfish bs
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#23
(2017-07-14, 00:06)Mercury Wrote: i have a hard time believing that i'm the only one who wouldn't welcome more streamlined integration with streaming services like netflix, and the Kodi library, even if i'm the only one on this thread apparently ;-)

You're not the only one. I'd like to be able to ditch my Roku and use Kodi for Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc. But as has been stated, those companies don't really want to be part of Kodi. They want you to use their app, on their chosen platforms only. Perhaps in the future this might change, but for now, this is where we are.

And I believe there actually is a commercial fork of Kodi available in the Play store. You might try offering them some money to see if they will try to create something that would meet your requirements.
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#24
(2017-07-14, 02:41)MetalChris Wrote: And I believe there actually is a commercial fork of Kodi available in the Play store. You might try offering them some money to see if they will try to create something that would meet your requirements.

If you speak about MrMC, it's probably a good example of what a commercial Kodi would be.

As they are a paying app, all the patent trolls are on their back, so they have to pay what I assume is a hefty pattern of their revenue in licensing fees.

They had to *remove* python support altogether to be accepted in the Apple store, so that they can make "big payload" (although I suspect it's more "pocket money")
So they spend most of their productive time reimplementing in core the functionality of skins/addons/scripts.

At the end of the day, they have no streams at all, just local library (and integration with plex and emby, which is nice, but...)
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#25
For Kodi to go commercial the Red Hat model would have to be followed where open source code is distributed commercially, since the code could never go closed source as every person who has ever contributed code retains copyright for that code, and it would need the agreement of every single contributor to change the Kodi license from GPL. However remaining open source could even be problematic if Kodi went commercial, a lot of Kodi code contributors are die hard open source advocates and would fiercely object to Kodi going commercial, most likely resulting in their code having to be removed and crippling Kodi in the process.

Also the fun of doing Kodi stuff is the hobby aspect, so you work on what interests you either from a desire to provide something for yourself or the satisfaction in providing something that meets the needs of others, no one is ever forced to work on anything. However once you go commercial with a paid product it will cease to be a hobby and more like a job, since deadlines will have to be met and possible tasks assigned that you may not want to work, the fun would be gone and so would most of the current developers.

So basically the above is a long way to say it's never going to happen Smile
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#26
After contact with the MrMC developers, they pointed out that they could keep python, with a pre-packaged set of addons.
What they could not do is allow addons to be installed by users "out-of-store", from 3rd party repositories.

Dully corrected Wink
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#27
Well I actually wish commercial products would copy some of Kodi's more basic features that have been available almost since its inception if they wont work with the team.
I'm talking about simple things like changing the zoom amount for whatever you may be watching or the audio offset for something out of synch.
Changing the GUI/skin to something more akin to your taste should be de rigour for commercial products yet only the free volunteer led Kodi allows this!
In short I'd say keep up the good work Team Kodi and don't let the bastards get you down!
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#28
Kodi is not completely owned by XBMC Foundation; it contains code copyrighted by third parties, correct?
Thus, am I correct they would not be legally able to release a proprietary version?
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#29
(2017-07-15, 06:33)BFeely Wrote: Kodi is not completely owned by XBMC Foundation; it contains code copyrighted by third parties, correct?
Thus, am I correct they would not be legally able to release a proprietary version?

What in this

(2017-07-14, 11:23)jjd-uk Wrote: the code could never go closed source as every person who has ever contributed code retains copyright for that code, and it would need the agreement of every single contributor to change the Kodi license from GPL.

did you not understand?
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#30
Just to clarify some misconceptions, GPL, which all our code is licensed to or more permissive for 3rd parties, do not prevent selling the product.
The only *strong* requirement is that users should be able to build it themselves if they want, bypassing the cash register step Wink

Trademark is another side. The "Kodi" name is owned, so cannot be used by anyone else.

Bottom-line: *Anyone* can fork the Kodi code, rebrand it to something else than "Kodi", and make it a "commercial product".
Obviously, being "commercial" implies *a lot* of duties to the customer after-sale, while we are free as the wind being not Wink
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