Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Amazon Pulls Kodi Media Player From App Store Over Piracy Claims

Posted by Soulskill on from the get-out-because-reasons dept.

An anonymous reader writes with news that the Kodi media player (formerly XBMC) has had its app pulled from the Amazon app store after Amazon decided that it facilitates piracy. Amazon said, "Any facilitation of piracy or illegal downloads is not allowed in our program," and directed the development team not to resubmit the app. The team was surprised to hear this, since Kodi itself does not download or link to any infringing content. It does support addons, and some users have created addons to support pirated content, but the Kodi developers are fighting that behavior. XBMC Foundation board member Nathan Betzen said it's absurd that "Amazon won’t let us into their appstore, but they have no problem selling the boxes that are pushing the reason they won’t let us into their app store."

5 of 122 comments (clear)

  1. Pronoun Game Anyone? by The+Faywood+Assassin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "selling the boxes that are pushing the reason they won’t let us into their app store"

    What does that even mean?

    --

    "I'm a humble person really,

    I'm actually much greater than I think I am"

    1. Re:Pronoun Game Anyone? by ganjadude · · Score: 4, Insightful

      they worded it badly but pretty much they are complaining that amazon is selling the fire TV and other media sticks, while banning KODI, which without addons is not any different.

      Seems like an issue with anti competitive behavior

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    2. Re:Pronoun Game Anyone? by Catbeller · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "Pirating" meaning "watching TV". Or recording it.

      We used to call it a VCR. We could record anything we wanted. And we weren't "pirates", a term that used to mean SELLING copyrighted content, usually in physical form. Which is still done at dealer tables in conventions all over the US, and no one is trying to take those people to prison.

      I could repeat my points of the last, oh, sixteen years warning of definition drift and the removal of the right to record something happening on a screen in front of you. But, the liars won and now watching and recording TV is illegal unless the "owners" control your TV and, well, everything else connected to it. Encrypted BIOSes, HDCP, all the crap that has taken over what once was just watching TV and turned it into a worldwide ubercrime, a Prohibition III nightmare that is never going to end.

  2. Just obey. by OneSizeFitsNoone · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Big Corporations are the only ones who know what is right and what is wrong. Every ill in this planet stems from the fact that there are still some forms of live who dare practice informed free will.

  3. "piracy-enabling" device? by stoned_ritual · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So all computers, cell phones, tablets, any audio/visual recording equipment should stop being sold by amazon based on this premise, yeah?