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Google Removes 'Kodi' From Search Autocomplete In Anti-Piracy Effort (torrentfreak.com)
Google has banned the term "Kodi" from the autocomplete feature of its search engine because it's "closely associated with copyright infringement." This means that the popular software and related suggestions won't appear unless users type out the full term. TorrentFreak reports: It turns out that Google has recently removed the term "Kodi" from its autocomplete results. While Kodi can be abused through pirate add-ons, the media player software itself is perfectly legal, which makes it an odd decision. Users who type in "Kod" get a list of suggestions including "Kodak" and "Kodiak," but not the much more popular search term Kodi. Similarly, when typing "addons for k" Google suggests addons for Kokotime and Krypton 17.6. While the latter is a Kodi version, the name of the media player itself doesn't come up as a suggestion. Once users type the full Kodi term and add a space, plenty of suggestions suddenly appear, which is similar to other banned terms. Ironically enough, the Kokotime app is frequently used by pirates as well. Also, the names of all of the pirate Kodi addons we checked still show up fine in the autosuggest feature. Unfortunately, Google doesn't document its autocomplete removal decisions, nor does it publish the full list of banned words. However, the search engine confirms that Kodi's piracy stigma is to blame here. In a statement to TorrentFreak, a Google spokesperson said: "Since 2011, we have been filtering certain terms closely associated with copyright infringement from Google Autocomplete. This action is consistent with that long-standing strategy."
Problem solved!
Good thing all you freetards fell for that 'Do No Evil' bullshit back in the day to enable this shitty company.
There has to be a whole other level just north of 1st world problem to properly convey the angst and suffering experienced by the user forced to enter the full four letters to link to the Kodi site.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
but has Google removed kodi/spmc/xbmc from the play store?
Otherwise it's just lip service to please some advertiser(s)
I guess there are some people too stupid or in so much of a hurry that if something doesn't autocomplete, they won't know how to actually search for something.
I wouldn't know, I don't use google for searches, haven't for probably 15 years.
Why won't google autocomplete my name any more?
--kodi
Kodi's official homepage is returned as the first search result.
Cheers, MS!
This action is so dumb I'm honestly not surprised it came from America. What is the point of attacking Kodi, a media player, for the contents some people use it for? It's like attacking iTunes or Winamp because some people use it to listen to "illegally" downloaded music.
Google is str8 up PEDO and needs to be replaced by a neutral entity that is in no way linked to American government or associated with America's lackeys in Europe and such.
So don't use the goo and go with the duck. Entering "kod" still brings up Kodi and Kodi.tv and kodi.tv download.
I get the point - a private company is censoring...somewhat. But they are a private company so it's their choice. Don't use them and the problem is gone.
And for gods sake stop giving them your data! A cheap domain cost $15 a year and comes with email. Use a browser that lets you (integral or via plugins) block cookies, redirects and scripts.
Nothing is going to keep you data 100% safe but at least they have to work for it.
Youtube was a huge source of lots of infringing content too, especially early on. Yet Google went and bought Youtube...
I'll name my Kodi fork Allah. Go ban that. Then I'll rename to Yahweh, and so on. Heck, maybe call it Googel.
Kodak should be removed as well since child porn can be taken with kodak cameras
You should all totally stop giving Google your money in order to punish them for their decision.
Oh... wait.
What's that you say?
You -don't- pay Google anything?
Well gosh, isn't that just too bad for you then.
Switched to DuckDuckGo and Bing (its actually not bad for technical searches).
I just don't know what to do with my gmail address, its my real name and how I'm contacted by people important to me, a vast history of important emails and the login or recovery email for a large number of services. Dumping it is not really an option.
Can't stand iOS so sticking with my 950XL till grim death. Hoping some of the crowd funded non android phones bear fruit.
Because you can use VLC, MPlayer, IINA, Plex and more to watch pirated content, ya know.
It seems odd that Google would single out Kodi. I do wonder how long until the software industry starts making it hard for us to play back arbitrary DRM-free video files.
Has 'Remington' been removed from auto complete yet? How about 'Smith & Wessen'? These companies manufacture guns which are used to kill people, which is worse than piracy. Why do they still autocomplete? Lots of other examples....
VLC doesn't have plugins which let you stream pirated content directly from pirate sites.
Don't get me wrong; this is definitely stupid. But your comparison isn't really valid.
since it can be used to search for illegal anything. It is not their job to be the police, but if they want to be, then they should take responsibility for anything found through their 'service'.
Honestly google search now returns results that don't even match by words anymore, conveniently giving results that don't even contain major keywords - it's becoming a junky search algorithm.
I needed a reminder that I haven't donated to Kodi in a while. And donation.. done.
I don't see any auto complete of any kind when using google search.
They turned into a shitty company, but they didnâ(TM)t start out that way. Any company with deep pockets will eventually attract interesting sociopaths looking to exploit the war chest. These big companies are magnets for the worst possible monsters in society because why would you stop at owning a two-bit company. Itâ(TM)s no wonder they turn evil.
Remember, shit floats to the top.
Good, one more step towards irrelevance google.
There was a web before google, there will be a web after google too.
Nope, they’ve always been this way. They just have more reach because you idiots allowed them to strangle out any meaningful competition.
Google has become everything they set out to replace. Time for a new alternative.
you type "kodi k" and it autocompletes "odi".
Streaming is built in with VLC.
Google had a vastly superior search engine compared to the major players. I wish there was more competition too; maybe like the Internet, search should be considered a utility.
As long as everyone forgets how to spell Kodi by themselves, this'll work beautifully.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
My fingers autocompleted "google.com" as "duckduckgo.com".
So strange... of course, it could be a result of the fact that I am sick and tired of Google's efforts to steer people around the internet. People turn to Google for INFORMATION, not to have their noses and asses wiped for them, and Google's got no business arbitrarily deciding to make ANY effort to steer anyone, and this WILL I'm sure, (or at least I hope,) bite them MIGHTY HARD in the ass.
You see, for Google to make ANY effort at all to "curb" use of Kodi in this fashion, they have abolished any cover they could ever take in a future court case that they don't censor or have a duty to censor. Much like a doctor or other healthcare professional in most (at least American) jurisdictions, the SECOND he or she begins treating a patient, regardless of whether or not he or she had a duty to begin doing so legally, he or she ACQUIRES an obligation by beginning treatment. To STOP treatment after beginning is legally called abandonment, and carries substantial civil and/or criminal penalties that that healthcare professional would NOT have faced if he or she had NEVER started in the first place. Oops.
I believe Google now finds itself in this position. NOW when someone uses Google even very tangentially to violate IP rights, the owners of the allegedly violated IP can also potentially reach into Google's very deep pockets, alleging that by failing to do anything (even removing the allegedly infringing material from autocomplete,) they are complicit in the alleged crime. Just the cost of fighting the lawsuits could be damaging to Google, as well as on the flip side, the fact that people like me are now FAR less likely to use their services, given how they are trying to manipulate my behavior, which, in case I haven't already made my feelings clear on the matter, FUCK. THAT. SHIT.
If in 12 months Google release a product/service/platform for managing your offline as well as online media content in a nice interface, then this makes a lot of sense.
I'll just leave this link here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
Oh no, I'll have to use Bing to find out how to spell Kodi.
Google has really started to suck.
Remove it from new business cards/contact details, find an alternative provider, and then add a signature to all new messages to begin all new emails to you with the updated email address as your google one is being deprecated.
It may take 3-5 years before you get to the point where you can shut it down, but eventually you will, and depending on who all your customers use, you might even be helping to limit the amount of email data google can siphon off you and people you interact with via email.
As the subject states, no more, no less.
And yet TVaddons still autofills! It's amazing they attack the legitimate side and leave the "bad" addons alone! How stupid.
When a free market monopolist censors just as well.
Life still goes on. You still have a choice of many search engines.
I mean this one. They are probably going to be annoyed.
Kodi is a word at least in Karelian, Veps, Ludian, Latvian, Swahili and Chichewa! So members of some linguistic minorities in Russia have to press enter when searching for home.
Just googled it. Home page says its a media player? WTF?
VLC doesn't have plugins which let you stream pirated content directly from pirate sites.
Don't get me wrong; this is definitely stupid. But your comparison isn't really valid.
Bring up VLC then click on Media and select Open Network Stream. Enter the URL of the video you want to play.
In case you are interested the above does work with YouTube as well.
Basically, if you can see it and/or hear it you can pirate it.
There ain't no such thing as proprietary standards only proprietary formats. Standards are by definition open.
Since they lost that huge lawsuit for copyright infringement for billions of bucks.
Purely for research reasons and so I an avoid doing anything bad, of course.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
You could at least have said you push your *foot* into her sphincter up to the knee, and for not swallowing your *shit*!
What kind of troll are you, when you cannot even match things that I have literally seen on video?
(The anal footing one is quite hot, btw. She has wonderful toes, and her foot literally goes up to the knee in that asshole. Resulted in mounds of cum coming from my dick, that you all get to lick and swallow before I piss down your throat and double-punch-fist your wrecked anal cunt.)
google should block themself, their search is also used a lot for piracy purposes.
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
This reminds me of google banning searches for "gun" in the the shop search. Not for "gun" by itself, but anything with "gun" in it. EG: Burgundy wine, Gundam, etc.
Who relies on autocomplete? Oh yeah, the idiot masses.
I get that it's just not advertising kodi within the search bar, actually making people learn how to spell kodi before they search for it... but it's still stupid. I'd get it if they just blocked terms for the known kodi piracy addons. But if you are going to punish a software program just because there's a checkbox to allow you to use unofficial sources in the settings, and some of the possible unofficial sources contain tools that can be used for piracy... isn't that basically what android does?
And yet they are still accepted into Google Summer of Code 2018.
Google needs a consistent voice...
...on one incredibly slippery slope.
If you use their own logic, shouldn't Google be banned?
-Copyright violations
-Child pronorgraphy
-Illegal drugs
-Identity theft
You can find information on all of the above items through a Google search.
The only terms that Google suppress are those terms that they are required to suppress by Federal law.
I'm switching my default browser to DuckDuckGo.
Since nearly all of the Kodi multimedia thieving ripoff pirate boxes that are undermining the commercial bedrock of the increasingly rabid and out of touch media empires are actually running Android, shouldn't google be going after Android as well?
Yes. Ban the tool because it could be used for illegal purposes. This reminds me of something else.
I don't believe in karma, I just call it like I see it.
I take it the two of you aren't actually familiar with kodi addons.
Kony 2012!!!
LOL at idiots who run sites like this, and think that "banning" will get them "more eyeballs"...
I take it the two of you aren't actually familiar with kodi addons.
I was only replying to his VLC comment, not Kodi.
For your interest, I only run Linux on my desktop and laptops (Fedora 27). Although I do have Kodi installed I don't really use the application and I am aware it does have plugins, some of which can be used to pirate certain content. Still, most of that content I am not interested in so I have not investigated it.
There ain't no such thing as proprietary standards only proprietary formats. Standards are by definition open.
Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, Google. You have saved the world.
(See Apple, you're not the only tech company that can be courageous)
I don't know this Kodi of which you speak, but more tech companies should ban more things so that we, the stupid masses unable to think for ourselves, can feel both more anxious and more secure at the same time.
Hallelujah. Silicon Valley be praised!