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Sony fixes bug that prevented Kodi installs on its TVs
The furor over Sony TVs allegedly blocking Kodi appears to be over. Sony told Engadget it's rolling out a firmware update for some of its Android-powered sets that fixes a bug preventing Kodi from installing. While it didn't say just what the fix entailed, it had previously mentioned that it had incorrectly flagged Kodi as a "kernel object" -- Kodi would go on to specify that a "certain letter combination" in its package ID sparked the confusion.
Sony accused of blocking Kodi media app to discourage piracy
It won't shock you to hear many people use Kodi to pirate movies and TV shows, but Sony appears to be particularly alarmed. The Kodi team has accused Sony of blocking the installation of its media app on newer Android TVs following months of reports from users. They believe Sony is blocking the package ID from Google Play, and have worked around it by recompiling the app with a different ID to evade the company's filter.
Google's piracy filter nixes 'Kodi' from autocomplete search results
Google has made an effort in recent years to bury any content that might infringe upon copyrights or promote piracy. Now, according to TorrentFreak, the company has banned "Kodi" from its autocomplete feature. Now, if users type "Kodi" into a Google search box when looking for the media player software, it won't come up as a suggestion.
Kodi comes full circle with a return to the Xbox
Media streaming software Kodi used to be known as XBMC (Xbox Media Center), but ironically, one of the few devices it hasn't worked on is the Xbox One -- until now. Kodi has unveiled version "18.0-Alpha1" for the Xbox One, giving owners of the console a (rough) streaming option. While it looks just like the Windows 10 and other versions of the app, the current version may be unstable and can't access your Blu-ray drive or attached storage (via USB 3.0), unfortunately.
UEFA secures UK court order to block illegal soccer streams
Tearing a leaf out of the English Premier League's playbook, the Union of European Football Associations -- better known as UEFA -- has been granted the power to block illegal match streams by the UK's High Court. UEFA won't actually be doing any of the dirty work, of course. Rather, the injunction allows UEFA to instruct the UK's biggest ISPs (BT, Virgin Media, Sky, TalkTalk, EE and Plusnet) to do the blocking on its behalf. Instead of targeting random websites hosting illegal football (yes, we mean soccer) streams, this particular anti-piracy measure stops the signal at the server level, effectively killing the weed at its root.
UK government issues advice on what makes 'Kodi boxes’ illegal
While streaming services like Netflix and Spotify have provided easy (and affordable) ways for Britons to enjoy legal content in their homes, the UK government is still waging war against what it calls "illicit streaming devices." This week, the Intellectual Property Office published official guidance on such hardware, reiterating that streaming copyrighted material via an Android TV steamer or so called "Kodi box" is illegal and that any offending add-ons or software should immediately be removed.
Hollywood strikes back against illegal streaming Kodi add-ons
An anti-piracy alliance supported by many major US and UK movie studios, broadcasters and content providers has dealt a blow to the third-party Kodi add-on scene after it successfully forced a number of popular piracy-linked streaming tools offline. In what appears to be a coordinated crackdown, developers including jsergio123 and The_Alpha, who are responsible for the development and hosting of add-ons like urlresolver, metahandler, Bennu, DeathStreams and Sportie, confirmed that they will no longer maintain their Kodi creations and have immediately shut them down.
Kodi box piracy case comes to anticlimactic end
A man arrested for selling "fully-loaded" Kodi boxes has suddenly backed down from fighting his case. Brian "Tomo" Thompson pleaded guilty to two charges under the 1988 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act earlier today. The charges are for advertising and selling devices — in this case, custom Kodi hardware — built for the purpose of streaming content illegally. It's a sharp U-turn from January when Thompson attended a hearing at Teeside Crown Court and plead not guilty to both offences.
Kodi fights trademark trolls trying to charge for its media app
Kodi doesn't just have to worry about add-ons and devices that give it a reputation as a piracy haven. The media center app developer has revealed that it's battling "trademark trolls" who've registered the Kodi name as their own and are using that mark to profit from software that's supposed to be free to distribute. The culprits may charge you to host Kodi on a website, for example, or make you buy their Kodi boxes instead of others. And this isn't a theoretical worry, either.
Plex for Kodi is now free for everyone
If you're all about a customized media center then you'll be familiar with Plex or Kodi, but getting the best of both services meant having a Plex Plus subscription. Until now, that is, as Plex has quietly made its Kodi add-on free to everyone. Now you can run both media centers simultaneously without losing any customizations, enjoying what Plex calls "settings nirvana", without paying for the privilege.
Sky is shaking up the way you pay for and watch sport
Televised sport is big business -- just ask Sky and BT Sport. Between them, the two companies have spent billions in order to secure access to the world's biggest sporting leagues and major events, resulting in a significant markup for consumers. The rising cost of Sky Sports, for example, has led many to cut the package altogether or seek more dubious alternatives like the so-called Kodi box (although it's the add-ons, not the software facilitating illegal streams). Sky is keenly aware of this, so today it announced a new plan to make its sports coverage more accessible. It's expanding the number of Sky Sports channels to 10, which will cater for individual sports and allow customers to subscribe to each one on their own.
Kodi boxes 'threaten to undermine' the UK's anti-piracy efforts
Media centre software Kodi is once again taking flak for its role in facilitating digital piracy today. An announcement from the UK's Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has praised "innovative" services like Netflix and Spotify for keeping Brits on the straight and narrow, but notes that the scale of online piracy remains "stable" -- which is just a positive way of saying no gains have been made in tackling infringement over the past 12 months, following several years of decline. While not mentioning Kodi specifically (which isn't unusual), the IPO states that "illicitly adapted set-top boxes" are partly to blame for this, and "threaten to undermine recent progress."
UK copyright body throws idle threats at Kodi box owners
Audio-visual enthusiasts know and recognise that Kodi is the swiss-army knife of media centres. But for lots of people around the world, the software is synonymous with movie and TV show piracy. "Fully-loaded" Kodi boxes have made the open-source platform a huge target for copyright authorities and rights holders, who are now using the courts to punish people who sell ready-made illegal streaming solutions. The end user has typically escaped punishment, but the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) is now warning UK owners that they too could see the long arm of the law tap them on the shoulder.
A piracy lawsuit is tearing Kodi's add-on community apart
Some of the biggest third-party Kodi streaming addons are no longer available. TorrentFreak reports that ZemTV and Phoenix have recently closed following a lawsuit from US satellite broadcaster Dish Network, with other streaming add-ons following suit. The add-ons, which offer on-demand and live streamed content free of charge, are accused of direct copyright infringement of various TV channels.
Attackers can use video subtitles to hijack your devices
Be careful before you fire up media player software to play that foreign-language movie -- it might be a way for intruders to compromise your system. Check Point researchers have discovered an exploit that uses maliciously crafted subtitles to take control of your device, whether it's a PC, phone or smart TV. It's not picky about the program, either -- the researchers demonstrated the flaw in Kodi, PopcornTime, Stremio and VLC. The technique isn't particularly complicated, and relies on a tendency by developers to assume that subtitles are little more than innocuous text files.
EU court rules selling pre-loaded pirate boxes is illegal
The European Court of Justice (CJEU) has today handed down a judgement that could drastically affect how multimedia streaming boxes are sold across the continent. In a case involving Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN and local online store Filmspeler.nl (Movie Player), it agreed with concerns regarding the sale of hardware that comes pre-loaded with addons that deliver protected sports and movie streams, ruling that it constitutes copyright infringement .
How the UK plans to block illegal Kodi soccer streams
Last week, at the High Court, the Football Association Premier League (FAPL) was granted stronger powers to crack down on the illegal streaming of English football matches. Instead of chasing websites hosting live players, the League can now block the servers that provide the live feeds, cutting off "Kodi boxes" -- a combination of legitimate media centre software with non-authorised third-party plugins -- and similar IPTV services. But how will it be enforced? Now that the order is publicly available, we can shed some light on how the FAPL intends to utilise its new powers.
Premier League wins court order to block Kodi football streams
The Premier League has been granted stronger powers to crack down on copyright infringing streams of football matches. Under a new court order, approved by the UK's high court, the organisation will be able to block servers powering illegal streams. It's a method that could and should be more effective than simply blocking the sites and webpages hosting a shady video player. "For the first time this will enable the Premier League to disrupt and prevent the illegal streaming of our matches via IPTV, so-called Kodi, boxes," a spokesperson for the Premier League said.
'Fully loaded' Kodi box seller pleads not guilty
Whether the makers of Kodi (by now you should know that's the new name for what used to be XBMC) like it or (definitely) do not, people have built businesses around preloading their software on players like a Fire TV stick and advertising it as an avenue for watching pirated video streams. Over in the UK, the authorities raided Brian Thompson's Cut Price Tomo TV's and have charged him with two offenses under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act. Now, as TorrentFreak explains, the court will decide what role Thompson played in any potential copyright infringement by the people who purchased the devices.
Plex brings its streaming app to Kodi media centers
If you run your own media server, you've likely weighed up the pros and cons of Kodi and Plex. Normally, you'd run one or the other, but some enterprising developers have fused the two, creating third-party plugins that integrate Plex within the open-source software. As of today, however, there is an official add-on in town.
