'Free TV' Android boxes finding their way into many households, study says

[TITAN308]

The entitlement of some people... people were working to deliver you those shows, and they must be compensated for this. If you don't like the price or availability, it doesn't allow you to steal their work.

One thing that never ceases to amaze on MMO-C, the number of people who defend theft and the number of closet pedo's on here.

[Iamanerd]

Reading a few posts here it seems I am greatly under utilizing my Kodi. I've literally only used it for Netflix, Amazon, and to play content directly from my NAS. Now I'm curious about just how much free content I can get at without putting in much effort.

Also, wtf are people buying these boxes from from ebay for almost 2x what they are sold for by Amazon? Lack of ability to fully set up the box?

Dude I sell them for $90 a piece on craigslist locally, it's been easy money. I figured I'll cash in on it while I can! Also I should add that if you sell them just label it as Firestick with Kodi/exodus, do not label as free shows/movies!! As that shows intent to pirate, the way I view it I'm just providing a device and people can use it whichever way they want.

[callipygoustp]

Dude I sell them for $90 a piece on craigslist locally, it's been easy money. I figured I'll cash in on it while I can!

Definitely some nice money considering the ease of effort required to set one up. Cha-ching!

[Super Kami Dende]

My new housemate uses that Kodi thing a lot.

[Mister Cheese]

>Implying people actually pay for shit on the internets

[Endus]

One thing that never ceases to amaze on MMO-C, the number of people who defend theft and the number of closet pedo's on here.

Suggesting that entirely legal streaming is somehow "theft" is a pretty ridiculous argument. Care to try again?

The lawsuits going out against the manufacturers has nothing to do with the legality for the end user. It's illegal to make bootlegs and sell them, it's not illegal to have bootlegs, or watch them.

[Iamanerd]

Definitely some nice money considering the ease of effort required to set one up. Cha-ching!

Pretty much, I started selling these a few months ago, towards the end of December, I've sold a bit over 300 lol. I'd have to go back and add them all up but it's been some good side money.

[Unhinged]

Define how middlemen have been stealing.

We both know you are being vague on purpose, to make yourself feel better about stealing.

They priced gouged both the makers of films and the consumer for decade's and refused to innovate even kbow the writing has been on the eall for years. They are still hell bent on lobbying government to make protectionist laws for themsleves. Pirating isn't even stealing anyway.

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The entitlement of some people... people were working to deliver you those shows, and they must be compensated for this. If you don't like the price or availability, it doesn't allow you to steal their work.

Hate to burst ypur bubble but the creators of shows and movies are all paid a long time before the priates come along and still "steal" anything. The only ones effected are the leeches in distribution companies who are more interested in lining their pockets than actually contributing anuthing worthwhile.

[volescue]

Indeed. The question is how to combat it. Back in the day I remember the boxes would stop working every once in a while. These days with the internet, it seems way more difficult to do anything to stop it.

For better or worse it is going to need to adapt like the music industry.

[ComputerNerd]

There is no easy fix to "Piracy"
There never has been, and there never will be. From the taping of music and tv shows on tapes and VHS and sharing with friends, to the downloading and streaming of today there will always be a way round whatever blocks are put in place by the content owners and providers.

Instead of going after the people who make use of the service, they should instead be looking at themselves, at the way media is distributed and the costs they charge, and going after the providers of downloaded content.

This one here gets it.
Don't punish those who want a good service, actually provide the good service.

Same applies with music, movies, software and even online advertising IMO.

For better or worse it is going to need to adapt like the music industry.

Only because they had no choice but to adapt.
Not because they wanted to.
And that is the problem, why innovate until your profit margin can't survive without it.

[stomination]

It would seem @Tennisace doesn't know the laws of his own homeland or isn't really from there.

[Vash The Stampede]

I use Kodi for the simple fact I don't want to pay £60+ just to watch TWO shows once a week 6 months after they have aired in the US. I can just torrent the shows in HD an hour after they air in US for free. Why would I wait 6+ months paying silly prices? Kodi (Exodus addon really) is amazing for some shows you can't even buy or aren't really broadcast anymore, or Netflix/Amazon Prime doesn't have them in UK.

Maybe it's time the so called entertainment industry started to innovate and catch up with the times. It's not as if this is a new thing. When cable was first installed where I lived back in the 90's, the fucking cable installers were offering "chipped boxes" to people and even setting them up after they installed the street cables next to the houses.

People need to understand that technology has moved way faster than companies business models have. What they ask for is unreasonable, and you have two choices as a result. You either pay to play, or you pirate. Paying isn't attractive since when it comes to entertainment you really don't have a choice. Piracy though gives you plenty of choices, and it's usually free.

Before MP3 a music file was 150MB. For the mid 90's, this wasn't something you could realistically pirate let alone store on your PC. But then came MP3 which reduced the file size to 1MB. That was something you could transfer with a 56K modem, and store hundreds of songs in your PC. Suddenly piracy wasn't uncommon for music, and then we had the first MP3 player. The industry moved so fast that the record industry couldn't compete. Despite winning their lawsuit against Napster, the music industry is now essentially dead, or at least a shadow of its former self.

So now we're at a point where streaming shows and movies is not only easy, but better than paid services. Netflix for example will not only limit how many people can use the service, but limit where you can use it. Their 4k feature only works on specific hardware with specific OS, with specific web browser. Kodi works on everything, including Linux and Android, and it's entirely free. Like it or not, this is now their competition and they have to compete. All it takes is a guy living in a basement who can stream anything for free. Pretty sure it can be done with a Raspberry Pi eating next to nothing in power.

[Tinykong]

The cable company finally got around to finding it's own ass with both hands and only charges me $15-20 more than the cost of my internet for all the TV channels I want.

I subscribe to other services when they have something I want (Netflix, HBO, etc.) and turn it off when I don't. Services like Hulu Live or Sling TV actually cost more than the cable company now.

For that amount of money, it's not worth the risk of pirating. Redbox ended my movie and game pirating days, as well. It's all about cost versus inconvenience.

[Vash The Stampede]

The cable company finally got around to finding it's own ass with both hands and only charges me $15-20 more than the cost of my internet for all the TV channels I want.

I subscribe to other services when they have something I want (Netflix, HBO, etc.) and turn it off when I don't. Services like Hulu Live or Sling TV actually cost more than the cable company now.

For that amount of money, it's not worth the risk of pirating. Redbox ended my movie and game pirating days, as well. It's all about cost versus inconvenience.

The reality is that nobody has really been attacked with piracy. Most people don't even protect themselves, which they should totally do anyway regardless if you pirate or not. There are a lot of methods to hide yourself from people spying on your network activity, and the most extreme method is a VPN with PFsense. Is it inconvenient? Oh yea, but is it worth it? Oh yea.

But streaming is different as there's not many ways you can go after the person receiving the stream. You're not downloading it, and you're not keeping it either. The only person who you can go after is the person performing the stream itself, and good luck cause chances are those people are smarter than you. The UK passed a law that basically goes after people using the new Kodi stream like service and puts them away for 10 years. Good luck with that.

[Beazy]

You can purchase a Raspberry Pi, Install Kodi and never pay for media again.

Raspberry Pi 3: $35.00
short HDMI cable: $5.00
USB Mini Power Cable: $5.00


*edit* You do not need any technology skills what so ever to get this up and running, if you can plug a USB stick into a USB port, you have the skills to do this.

[Elim Garak]

Media companies and their greed is just killing the media companies. For customers to have legitimate access to all the media they like they most of the time MUST subscribe to a multiple number of media providers. Which is rather costly and stupid. No wonder people are opting to having it all in ONE box for FREE, sacrificing a bit of quality.

Media industry should really reevaluate their values. Because their current path leads into a dead end, for them.

[Exeris]

I'll gladly pay for products I want.

However, I'm not going to pay when I'm forced to purchase 85% fluff to get what I want (that's TV/cable ATM).

This is the heart of the problem for me too, we are forced to pay for a fixed tv package were most of the shows and channels are not something I or anyone in the household want to watch. Wasting money is never an enjoyable experience and been waiting for someone to force them to change their practice for decades.

About two decades since I payed for music for example mainly because there was so many songs that I had no interest in but still had to pay for it all, but with options like Spotify I'm now a paying customer again.

A car insurance commercial on tv that is pleasing me were you pay for the exact km you drive, we are used to pay for fixed driving lengst like 12000km and so on, but for example my mother that is 50% retired doesn't drive that much anymore. So in a year she'll maybe end up at 9000km and waste money paying for the 12000km option.

The general point is that there should be more effort into letting customers pay for the content they want and actually use.

[Ahhdurr]

I use one all the time and don't feel bad.

[zenkai]

The way to combat it is to make the content more easily accessible and affordable. .

Bingo, and that's what they did in China where pirate movies are rampant.

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http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/pira...e-tv-1.4098249

Wow!
A lot of people are using these. I wonder why? Do they not mind stealing?
Criminals these days are really getting out of hand.


Not me though. #Lawabidingcitizen

I thought showing people how they can Pirate things against the forum rules here?

[Unhinged]

Bingo, and that's what they did in China where pirate movies are rampant.

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I thought showing people how they can Pirate things against the forum rules here?

But this isn't even illegal where the op lives