Five arrests in fully loaded Kodi streaming box raids (UK)

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freitasm

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Geekzone

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# 208382 9-Feb-2017 14:22

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"Android TV stream boxes" are available everywhere: retail, Trade Me, Facebook groups. To make it more interesting, BBC reporting five people arrested in the UK for selling these kinds of boxes...

The sale of so-called "fully loaded Kodi boxes" has been called a "top priority" by the Federation Against Copyright Theft (Fact).

The five traders were arrested in early morning raids.

Fact said it believed the suspects had made in the region of £250,000 selling the devices online.

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.

Obviously this was the UK, different take on copyright but I imagine local copyright owners might be looking at these too...

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Ultimate Geek

# 1717932 9-Feb-2017 21:12

I guess the issue would be wether you supply the links to copyrighted material with the box or not

Box without links = legit

Box with links = to be determined in a court of law

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Rikkitic

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# 1717946 9-Feb-2017 21:30

Yay. I am not a supporter of copyright as it currently exists nor corporate American interests, but making money off the work of others is a bridge too far for me. Making money off the ignorance of others doesn't bother me much.

I don't think there is ever a bad time to talk about how absurd war is, how old men make decisions and young people die. - George Clooney

Dratsab

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# 1717948 9-Feb-2017 21:31

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Partial screen grab from the sellers website. I imagine they will be preloading links.

Edit: re-uploaded image without sellers contact details.

thecatsgoolies

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# 1717978 9-Feb-2017 22:13

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Throw the book at them!

Apsattv

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# 1718024 10-Feb-2017 02:18

No thats just one of the local ones.. charging $300+ for a $60 android device

No wonder they can offer a buy one get one free

dickytim

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# 1718118 10-Feb-2017 10:11

Rikkitic:

Yay. I am not a supporter of copyright as it currently exists nor corporate American interests

But are you a supported of theft?

Would you go into an Apple store and take an iPhone without paying for it? That is stealing from a Corporate American.

If so would you walk into a Warehouse and steal an iPhone?

Now would you walk into a franchise store owned by a Mum and Dad investor and steal an iPhone?

What would your justification be for either?

Would you bleat if someone walked into your house and stole your iPhone?

sen8or

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Ultimate Geek

# 1718180 10-Feb-2017 10:47

The bog standard argument for copyright infringement is that its not theft. Theft means to take something unlawfully, denying the rightful owner of the goods to uninterruped possession. Distribution and copying of content does not deny the rightful owner of uninterrupted possession of the goods (they afterall still have it) it merely denys them the income.

The other argument is that the copyright owner is not missing out on income as "they wouldn't have paid for it anyway".

Are either of these arguments strong, not really, but the old "copyright is theft" horse has been beaten so frequently its not worth trying to resurrect it

As someone who lost many thousands of dollars (at least in part) to the victimless crime that is copyright theft (former DVD store owner) I do not side with those that choose to download, but if our mighty legal system can't be ar$ed doing anything about it, there is little sense losing sleep over it now.

Rikkitic

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# 1718200 10-Feb-2017 11:26

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dickytim:

Rikkitic:

Yay. I am not a supporter of copyright as it currently exists nor corporate American interests

But are you a supported of theft?

Would you go into an Apple store and take an iPhone without paying for it? That is stealing from a Corporate American.

If so would you walk into a Warehouse and steal an iPhone?

Now would you walk into a franchise store owned by a Mum and Dad investor and steal an iPhone?

What would your justification be for either?

Would you bleat if someone walked into your house and stole your iPhone?

Bla bla bla. We have been around this circle before.

I don't think there is ever a bad time to talk about how absurd war is, how old men make decisions and young people die. - George Clooney

dickytim

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# 1718235 10-Feb-2017 12:00

Doesn't make that action less theft in my eyes, and in the eyes of anyone with any sort of morals.

I take it that Bla bla bla means that yes you would steal an iPhone but would be very upset if someone stole yours.

Rikkitic

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# 1718253 10-Feb-2017 12:25

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This discussion has already taken place here, with every possible point of view well-represented. I don't see any point in rehashing all the same arguments. But I will state my case for your benefit.

As pointed out by sen8or above and many, many others, equating physical theft with copyright piracy is a fake argument made by vested interests to try to obscure the issue. Downloading or copying something does not deprive the owner of the item. The two things are not the same.

That said, I do not believe in copyright piracy. People deserve to be paid for their work. That is why I applauded the arrest. These are scumbags making money from providing links to pirated material others have created. This hurts everyone.

I believe some kind of copyright is necessary and, again, people should be paid for their work. At the same time, I think the current situation with copyright legislation is absurd and counter-productive. It seems to be driven by corporate greed and a complete lack of understanding of anything technical since the invention of the gramophone. It leads to ridiculous situations, like small shops being penalised for playing the radio. It doesn't achieve anything, as this thread illustrates, because there are so many ways to copy, bypass, and distribute 'protected' content that anyone who wants to can easily access it for free. The only thing current copyright legislation accomplishes, is to make life hard for ordinary people who obey the rules. It needs to be thrown out and completely redone, this time with some common sense. Until it is, I make my own rules. I download stuff for my own use that isn't supposed to be downloadable, and I copy and format shift stuff, also for my own use. I don't share it and I don't make money from it. I don't use sites that contain pirated content. If something I want to see costs money, I pay for it. My morals are fine, thank you.

I don't think there is ever a bad time to talk about how absurd war is, how old men make decisions and young people die. - George Clooney

ageorge

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Ultimate Geek

# 1718393 10-Feb-2017 18:03

We dont have a TV aerial here; just use broadband.

TVNZ Ondemand doesnt work on most of our devices due to DRM rights (annoying)

For my daughters birthday we got Netflix. This service seemed so good that after a few days we upgraded to HD and thats when problems started. Netflix 'standard' plan works with most anything but their HD plan although looks attractive, only worked with a couple of devices in our house, and even then, not in HD.
So you may have Netflix HD, have the bandwidth, but unless you have an approved device eg TV with Netflix, get low resolution.

If Netflix worked with all devices there should be no excuse for torrent downloads or Android streamers such as 'Showbox' but when Showbox actually works better than Netflix at zero price, the argument for legit watching gets watered down imho.

There is info on Netflix device compatibility on their site, (the device list is quite limited) but the bottom line is it comes down to money - when TV makers pay Netflix truckloads for their devices to be compatible, the small players like TV Box makers dont stand a chance. Also, my Samsung Note3 didnt work in HD. My linux PC didnt work until I fooled Netflix by using a spoofer; but its still running standard resolution. They claim that the reason devices are limited is because unapproved devices may not work properly; but surely a disclaimer would suffice eg 'unapproved devices may not work properly or with full resolution'; that would keep players like me happy and from what I read there are thousands who are missing out on HD.

Im importing a couple of TV boxes which have 4k streaming H265 VP9, but they work work with the HD service Im paying for from Netflix.

Wished there was a cost-effective service that we could use that once paid for, provided HD good quality like Netflix, unfortunately at the moment there seems nothing.

cruxis

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Master Geek

# 1718397 10-Feb-2017 18:15

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dickytim:

Rikkitic:

Yay. I am not a supporter of copyright as it currently exists nor corporate American interests

But are you a supported of theft?

Would you go into an Apple store and take an iPhone without paying for it? That is stealing from a Corporate American.

If so would you walk into a Warehouse and steal an iPhone?

Now would you walk into a franchise store owned by a Mum and Dad investor and steal an iPhone?

What would your justification be for either?

Would you bleat if someone walked into your house and stole your iPhone?

Stop telling lies its not theft its copy infringement, Its more like walking into the warehouse/home store whatever and making a exact copy of that iphone then walking out. Thus leaving the original iphone behind