>Google has banned the term “Kodi” from its autocomplete feature, meaning those who look for information on the set-top box will have to type out the full term in order to search, as reported by TorrentFreak.
>While Kodi is a legal set-top box for streaming, it supports a myriad of third-party add-ons that provide access to pirated media.
Kodi is not a "set-top box". Kodi is software. A set-top box might be pre-loaded with Kodi, but it is not Kodi, anymore than a phone is an "Android". As far as I'm aware, the Kodi team doesn't even sell or officially endorse any pre-loaded hardware set-top box.
This sort of mangling is disappointing from a tech-focused news outlet like The Verge. It also reinforces the implicit association between Kodi and piracy, which is the very thing that caused Google to remove Kodi from search results in the first place.
> This sort of mangling is disappointing from a tech-focused news outlet like The Verge. It also reinforces the implicit association between Kodi and piracy, which is the very thing that caused Google to remove Kodi from search results in the first place.
This sort of mangling is exactly how exaggerated misrepresented news gets spread. Google didn't remove Kodi from their search results. You can type Kodi and it's the first thing that pops up.
You can type home theater software and get Kodi in the search results, or open source media player and get Kodi.
All they did is remove Kodi from being autocompleted. It still even comes up for autosuggestion.
I feel so bad for the Kodi project. They've done amazing work over the years and their reputation is being destroyed so quickly by people taking their open source work, adding a bunch of piracy addons, and selling a set top box.
I have no idea what they can do to combat this. I don't see how they can distance themselves from this any more than they have.
Equally sad as the existence of the terrible Kodi piracy boxes is that the legitimate set top box/"smart TV" industry is completely ignoring it. I'm not aware of any TV manufacturer building Kodi into their product, instead they invent their own junk, which is usually much worse.
Does anyone know why the consumer electronics industry is ignoring Kodi?
Dell, HP, and Apple all manufacture devices (laptops) used extensively, even primarily by many, for pirating movies and games, and even facilitate the piracy of games on other platforms (console flash carts etc).
I don't think Kodi's reputation should suffer any more than Apple's does, but at the same time, I know that it will.
I thought about having the software auto auto-rebrand itself when a non authorized addon is installed. It's a pain I know, now kodi addon developers need to sign addons. But I'm sure they can automate it somehow.
Require addons and kodi itself not to hardcode the Kodi name/brand (even in logos/addons titles, etc.), if an unauthorized addon is installed kodi replaces all the kodi brand with a generic name, the harder to google the better, something like "Media Player" sounds generic enough.
But I'm sure these box sellers would just "create" custom skins/addons and put the kodi brand there just to spite the developers.
Kodi pirates did not destroy their reputation. Every semi-open platform has pirate users. Those that created piracy boxes and put the kodi logo right next to pirate services and legit services that addons enabled the piracy of probably contributed though. But most, if not all these boxes run kodi on top of Android, and their reputation hasn't been sullied from this.
I think Kodi could partially mitigate this issue by selling clean kodi boxes. I still don't know where I can buy one.
In a similar vein, Amazon refused to publish an Alexa skill I wrote to control Kodi (basically a voice remote). They cited piracy as the only reason. When I'd press them on why they allowed one for Plex since they are both just video players, they would just refuse to acknowledge the question and deny me again.
It's their right to do so, but it's stupid and defies logic.
> You can't ban software makers for the illegal use of their software by users when your own users and services are the same..
The sad thing is that yes - they can, and yes - they do. And there's little we can do to stop them from doing that, apart from raising concerns and stopping using their service.
That is frankly one of the dumbest things I have ever heard. I have used Kodi since it was XBMC. And MAYBE back in the day when you had to break DMCA section 1201 to install it on an original Xbox then you could have argued there was something questionable about it. But now it's just a general media player that looks good on a TV.
I am sure this is a total coincidence that the ability of Chrome to cast local files was showed off literally yesterday, and they seek and destroy the competitor that makes Chromecasting look like a cavemans solution the following.
So does that mean they should remove all android devices that play Kodi? Oh, that hurts Google bottom line.. oh nevermind then.. let's just villanize Kodi developers.(Who have done a hell of a job I might add since the Xbox original with a modchip). This is grandstanding for show. Google is without a doubt the largest contributer to piracy via their indexing of, well, everything. Android should be worried about why their sandbox security is so terrible it allowed Facebook to gather sexting archives rivaling only that of Snapchat.
At what point do filtering or targeted omissions become considered anti-competitive practices? It is one thing for a government to issue and companies to uphold gags because governments are not in competition.
[+] [-] AdmiralAsshat|8 years ago|reply
>While Kodi is a legal set-top box for streaming, it supports a myriad of third-party add-ons that provide access to pirated media.
Kodi is not a "set-top box". Kodi is software. A set-top box might be pre-loaded with Kodi, but it is not Kodi, anymore than a phone is an "Android". As far as I'm aware, the Kodi team doesn't even sell or officially endorse any pre-loaded hardware set-top box.
This sort of mangling is disappointing from a tech-focused news outlet like The Verge. It also reinforces the implicit association between Kodi and piracy, which is the very thing that caused Google to remove Kodi from search results in the first place.
[+] [-] kalcode|8 years ago|reply
This sort of mangling is exactly how exaggerated misrepresented news gets spread. Google didn't remove Kodi from their search results. You can type Kodi and it's the first thing that pops up.
You can type home theater software and get Kodi in the search results, or open source media player and get Kodi.
All they did is remove Kodi from being autocompleted. It still even comes up for autosuggestion.
[+] [-] saas_co_de|8 years ago|reply
The irony is that Google has made far more money off of "piracy" than Kodi.
The sad thing is that a certain select set of companies gets special privileges while open source endeavors like Kodi get shafted.
If Kodi had a lot of private consumer data to trade for legal immunities it would be a different story.
[+] [-] teh_klev|8 years ago|reply
They issued a correction:
Correction March 30th, 2018, 1:20AM ET: Article updated to be clear that Kodi is software sometimes loaded onto set-top-boxes, not a set-top box.
Also this is the original source article that The Verge have re-heated:
https://torrentfreak.com/google-adds-kodi-to-autocomplete-pi...
[+] [-] eco|8 years ago|reply
I have no idea what they can do to combat this. I don't see how they can distance themselves from this any more than they have.
[+] [-] starsinspace|8 years ago|reply
Does anyone know why the consumer electronics industry is ignoring Kodi?
[+] [-] PostOnce|8 years ago|reply
I don't think Kodi's reputation should suffer any more than Apple's does, but at the same time, I know that it will.
[+] [-] nodja|8 years ago|reply
Require addons and kodi itself not to hardcode the Kodi name/brand (even in logos/addons titles, etc.), if an unauthorized addon is installed kodi replaces all the kodi brand with a generic name, the harder to google the better, something like "Media Player" sounds generic enough.
But I'm sure these box sellers would just "create" custom skins/addons and put the kodi brand there just to spite the developers.
[+] [-] anomie31|8 years ago|reply
I think Kodi could partially mitigate this issue by selling clean kodi boxes. I still don't know where I can buy one.
[+] [-] Mindless2112|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jasonkostempski|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] m0ngr31|8 years ago|reply
It's their right to do so, but it's stupid and defies logic.
[+] [-] solarkraft|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ISL|8 years ago|reply
“Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
Since the beginning, our goal has been to develop services that significantly improve the lives of as many people as possible.
Not just for some. For everyone.
To decrement something would appear to be contrary to making it universally accessible.
[+] [-] SlowRobotAhead|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Raphmedia|8 years ago|reply
You can't ban software makers for the illegal use of their software by users when your own users and services are the same...
Why don't they remove "full episode" from YouTube's autocomplete? (We all know the answer to that one.)
[+] [-] M4v3R|8 years ago|reply
The sad thing is that yes - they can, and yes - they do. And there's little we can do to stop them from doing that, apart from raising concerns and stopping using their service.
[+] [-] chme|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] parliament32|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] TomMckenny|8 years ago|reply
Is it that copyright violation is such a "heinous" crime that special rules apply?
[+] [-] alexbeloi|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bubblethink|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Semaphor|8 years ago|reply
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/04/google-demotes-chr...
[+] [-] givinguflac|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] otakucode|8 years ago|reply
I am sure this is a total coincidence that the ability of Chrome to cast local files was showed off literally yesterday, and they seek and destroy the competitor that makes Chromecasting look like a cavemans solution the following.
[+] [-] utopcell|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] blackflame7000|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] x0x|8 years ago|reply
Example; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodi_(software)
All links there =) Anytime official site changes, this pages updated.
Wikipedia is your Search Engine, when Google fails.
[+] [-] zbuttram|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lopmotr|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] AnIdiotOnTheNet|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cimi_|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bootlooped|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] question_that|8 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] zerotolerance|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chatman|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bunnymancer|8 years ago|reply
Edit: also note that it's just the autocomplete, not the actual search results
[+] [-] nvahalik|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eco|8 years ago|reply