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The Kodi Development Team Wants To Be Legitimate and Bring DRM To the Platform. (torrentfreak.com)
New submitter pecosdave writes: The XBMC/ Kodi development team has taken a lot of heat over the years, mostly due to third-party developers introducing piracy plugins to the platform. In many cases, cheap Android computers are often sold with these plugins pre-installed with the Kodi or XBMC name attached to them -- something that caused Amazon to ban sales of such devices. The Kodi team is not happy about this, and has taken the fight to the sellers. The Kodi team is now trying to work with rights holders to introduce DRM and legitimate plugins to the platform. Is this the first step towards creating a true one-stop do it yourself Linux entertainment system?
Over the last few years Kodi removed karaoke, choose a worse default skin and menu layout with worse customizability and worse loading icon, and created issues with virtually every add on with their updates and now they want to drm it? Gotta say Kodi is going way way downhill. I want a simple media player. This isn't a game breaking change on its own but it could be the last straw of many poor decisions that kills it. What are the other options now?
All the content I need is on a computer connected to my TV over HDMI. I don't need kodi for myself, but when my mom is babysitting my 2-year-old, I would like something with an easy menu interface that I can program content from multiple sources on. So whether my daughter wants to watch a show on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, or a mp4 video file on the hard drive, my mom shouldn't have to know or care what the source of the content is.
Hopefully, Kodi can get to that point someday, but without official support from those streaming providers, it will never get there. Maybe this is a step in the right direction.
sidetracked: For that same reason I use Emby, not Plex. Really happy with it as well.
(But of course every screen has Kodi running on it. Emby's only used for mobile and web access from outside the local network)
it's in my head
The problem is when "legitimate" devices can only run Kodi add-ons that have been signed by the MPA(A)/local chapter. And yes, that means the ones that don't have that "feature" are therefore automatically in the "illegitimate" category. Because the only reason you'd want one of those is "because of piracy". And that makes the circle round again.
When the copyright term is "forever minus a day", live every day like it's the last.