Police Arrest Five Men For Selling Kodi Boxes 'Fully Loaded' With Illegal Streaming Apps (bbc.com)

Five people have been arrested in early morning raids for selling "fully loaded Kodi boxes," which are set-top boxes modified to stream subscription football matches, television channels and films for free. The Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) said it believed the suspects had made roughly $250,000 selling the devices online. BBC reports: Kodi is free software built by volunteers to bring videos, music, games and photographs together in one easy-to-use application. Some shops sell legal set-top boxes and TV sticks, often called Kodi boxes, preloaded with the software. The developers behind Kodi say their software does not contain any content of its own and is designed to play legally owned media or content "freely available" on the internet. However, the software can be modified with third-party add-ons that provide access to pirated copies of films and TV series, or free access to subscription television channels. The five arrests were made in Bolton, Bootle, Cheadle, Manchester and Rhyl.

Comments

They're everywhere

[amiga3D]

Have they looked on ebay? craigslist? everywhere? 5 arrests is less than spit in the ocean. Those boxes are too easy to make or buy. A good android box loaded with all the "bad" addons can be had for 30 bucks. I got one that does 4K and h265 video for the same price as a raspberry pi 3.

Gonna watch this one.

[WolfgangVL]

Politicians paid to fight against technology they don't understand. Technically, (my understanding is) the plugins are not even illegal. It's the content they are pointing at that is technically enabling unauthorized viewing. IANAL, but I am interested in how this plays out. Could be an interesting court case, and potentially set some pretty crazy precedents. Are you watching closely?

How is this different from a browser that can go to the very same links the plugins are pointing at and get you unauthorized entertainment? Browser was paid for one way or another. By this logic, every web-browser is just as guilty, and setting grandma up with a couple of bookmarks makes me a criminal.

Kodi boxes are neat. Looks like they have finally hit critical mass.

All this does is drive the tech back into moms basement where it started. Goo Yob. Changes nothing.

Re:They're everywhere because...

[rmdingler]

Years ago, if you had an old box from a local cable company and you knew the right employee, you could have the box modified to receive all provided content for a nominal fee ($50 US). The cable company would search for pirated boxes during big pay-per-view venues, and zap them when they located an unregistered subscriber, rendering the pirated box useless.

I've seen one legitimate cable subscriber, perhaps inadvertently, provide cable to multiple users at apartment complexes and trailer parks through clever splices and hidden cables. Despite the risk of being charged with theft of service, sheer economic forces drive the poorest among us to alternatives when paying for content is not an option.

tl/dr: Cheating a bit to get what would otherwise be unavailable to you will not die suddenly because a handful of violators for profit got pinched.

Re:They're everywhere because...

[sexconker]

This is how I know you're lying:

I finally got DirecTV and it's been great ever since.