How to Identify Illegal Addons?
#1
Question 
How to know if the addon I installed is legit or not?
I am using an addon which connects Live TV apps like Disney+ etc to PVR client (Actual app subscription required). Is it legal? Its not distributing any pirated stuff.
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#2
As a rule of thumb, if you're getting stuff for free that you would normally have to pay a subscription or premium for (TV shows, channels or movies), or if you're getting stuff that wouldn't normally be available (e.g. films that are currently only in theatres, and not available for streaming on non-premium sources) then the source (and so addon) is probably not legit.

Stuff that needs a subscription is usually OK, as long as the subscription is to the original content provider (Disney, Sky, Netflix, Amazon Prime etc) rather than some 3rd party reseller who may or may not have the rights to redistribute the stuff they offer (there are many shady IPTV providers out there who charge a subscription or other fee for what is basically pirated media that they have no rights to distribute).

A look on our banned addons (wiki) list will give you some idea of the most well known miscreants, but generally just apply common sense. Also stuff in our official repo (or with established threads in our addon support sections) is normally OK. The stuff in the repo is explicitly vetted by Team Kodi, and stuff we allow to have threads here is normally trustworthy, even if it is not in the repo for other reasons.

If you were offered something equivalent in a pub car park or a car boot sale, would it ring true or not. Stuff that is too good (or cheap) to be true most often is...
|Banned add-ons (wiki)|Forum rules (wiki)|VPN policy (wiki)|First time user (wiki)|FAQs (wiki) Troubleshooting (wiki)|Add-ons (wiki)|Free content (wiki)|Debug Log (wiki)|

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#3
(2021-10-08, 14:43)DarrenHill Wrote: As a rule of thumb, if you're getting stuff for free that you would normally have to pay a subscription or premium for (TV shows, channels or movies), or if you're getting stuff that wouldn't normally be available (e.g. films that are currently only in theatres, and not available for streaming on non-premium sources) then the source (and so addon) is probably not legit.

Stuff that needs a subscription is usually OK, as long as the subscription is to the original content provider (Disney, Sky, Netflix, Amazon Prime etc) rather than some 3rd party reseller who may or may not have the rights to redistribute the stuff they offer (there are many shady IPTV providers out there who charge a subscription or other fee for what is basically pirated media that they have no rights to distribute).

A look on our banned addons (wiki) list will give you some idea of the most well known miscreants, but generally just apply common sense. Also stuff in our official repo (or with established threads in our addon support sections) is normally OK. The stuff in the repo is explicitly vetted by Team Kodi, and stuff we allow to have threads here is normally trustworthy, even if it is not in the repo for other reasons.

If you were offered something equivalent in a pub car park or a car boot sale, would it ring true or not. Stuff that is too good (or cheap) to be true most often is...

understood, thanks. 🙂
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#4
(2021-10-08, 13:51)Rushil Wrote: How to know if the addon I installed is legit or not?
I am using an addon which connects Live TV apps like Disney+ etc to PVR client (Actual app subscription required). Is it legal? Its not distributing any pirated stuff.
I think we need a tool (preferably, in form of online form or https://paste.kodi.tv hook, I don't know) that parses Kodi debug logs and identifies banned add-ons and warns user with something like "Your Kodi log indicates there are banned addons installed: <list> Please note you will not be eligible to get support until you remove all of them and recreate an issue on a cleaner system". Don;t know how feasible is it overall, but as a mod tool it might be cool.
Maintainer of Kodi from Debian | Got an issue with Kodi from Debian? Report it here: Kodi from Debian - Support Thread
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#5
Simply reviewing any log paste made to the paste site will already show installed banned addons (wiki) on the device that the log came from.
All repos and addons that are on the list are highlighted in orange in the logs.

Of course the list is not exhaustive, but we keep it as up to date as possible when we come across new forks and other mutations of such things.
|Banned add-ons (wiki)|Forum rules (wiki)|VPN policy (wiki)|First time user (wiki)|FAQs (wiki) Troubleshooting (wiki)|Add-ons (wiki)|Free content (wiki)|Debug Log (wiki)|

Kodi Blog Posts
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How to Identify Illegal Addons?0