Android TV box.. Are they legal?

Colmk191

Hi everyone,

I recently bought an android tv box.. I have to say I am very happy with buying one these things, I mean the selection of channels and movies on these are unbelievable and great quality.. there's nearly too much to choose from but.. that made me ask the question are these things fully legal??

Anyone know how these things are legal if they are? even though they seem very easy to come across online. I have kid's in the house that's why I said id check up on them.

Really appreciate any advice

Thanks
Colm

dubrov

The boxes are legal but the streams are not.

Colmk191

Thanks for the reply dubrov.

Bummer I had a feeling I cant praise this enough.. I was surprised so many of these things were selling so I said I would try one. They are a great device unbelievable selection of films for the very small investment. There's a custom made build on the one, the seller had all the best add ons pre-installed.

Maybe certain streams are legal but I'm guessing it's only certain streams.. highly recommend these devices people.

I think Il still hang on to it :P

Colmk191

Thanks for the reply dubrov.

Bummer I had a feeling I cant praise this enough.. I was surprised so many of these things were selling so I said I would try one. They are a great device unbelievable selection of films for the very small investment. There's a custom made build on the one I got, the seller had all the best add ons pre-installed.

Maybe certain streams are legal but I'm guessing it's only certain streams.. highly recommend these devices people.

I think Il still hang on to it :P

James Delaney

Hi.
Just wondering are u still happy with the box. I used to use movietube but its now removed.

Are the movies free using the box ?

Coukd u pkease advise me which sites are best & also the name / midel of tv box.
Thanks.

droidman123

James Delaney wrote: »

Hi.
Just wondering are u still happy with the box. I used to use movietube but its now removed.

Are the movies free using the box ?

Coukd u pkease advise me which sites are best & also the name / midel of tv box.
Thanks.

Thread here with everything you would need to know

touch.boards.ie/thread/2057446012/65/#post97800987

James Delaney

droidman123 wrote: »

Thread here with everything you would need to know

touch.boards.ie/thread/2057446012/65/#post97800987

Thks Droidman123 .......... but the post is 65 screens long. I know that sounds lazy but is there a condensed version available?
J

RossieMan

No there isn't, read the OP.

The last few pages are all that's relevant anyway, streams are always changing.

vienne86

I have the M8 box, and it seems to be decent enough. I find it irritiating now having a TV guide, but everything is there if you root around.

rustopher

I love the box but my only issue is that when I select something to watch it goes to a processing page and no further so I have to watch what ever eventually works....

Anyone else have this problem, my internet seems to be working fine.

rustopher

I love the box but my only issue is that when I select something to watch it goes to a processing page and no further so I have to watch what ever eventually works....

Anyone else have this problem, my internet seems to be working fine.

ED E

Illegal sites constantly get DMCAd, thats what happens when you arent paying for things.

rustopher

Now my box has a message saying 'server error' and wont play anything. Its hit n miss. I checked all connections and the internet. No idea what's happening???

ongarite

They are illegal and Kodi is having to resort to legal measures to stop their name/product being a byword for piracy.
They have copyrighted the name Kodi and will be actively going after companies/people selling Kodi boxes with illegal and dangerous addons pre-installed.

bmwguy

ongarite wrote: »

They are illegal and Kodi is having to resort to legal measures to stop their name/product being a byword for piracy.
They have copyrighted the name Kodi and will be actively going after companies/people selling Kodi boxes with illegal and dangerous addons pre-installed.

They are not illegal they can do nothing a phone, tablet or computer can't do. Streaming is not illegal either there was an EU ruling to this effect, Google it you will see it.
Downloading is illegal though in many cases, you can not make a copy of copyrighted material. Streaming is different

rustopher

Thanks for those comments, but they are not sold on the black market and are becoming very popular. I think it gives sky and the like something to worry about. Bills, bills bills....no thanks!!

Anyway I don't think the legal/illegal issue of these boxes have anything to do with the frustration of this android box telling me I have no connection. Maybe I need to reinstall it. Anyone one else have this problem before???

rustopher

ok panic over, I reinstalled it and its working again.....for now!

ED E

bmwguy wrote: »

They are not illegal they can do nothing a phone, tablet or computer can't do. Streaming is not illegal either there was an EU ruling to this effect, Google it you will see it.
Downloading is illegal though in many cases, you can not make a copy of copyrighted material. Streaming is different

Streaming and downloading are technically the same thing. Try holding up the distinction in front of a judge if the RIAA were to take you to court.

Kur4mA

It seems Kodi have had enough now and will be actively going after ANY of these boxes that use their trademark or branding in advertisements.

https://kodi.tv/the-piracy-box-sellers-and-youtube-promoters-are-killing-kodi/

I'd imagine a lot of DMCA takedown requests are being issued against these streams too so don't be surprised to see issues with these boxes constantly.

loyatemu

I noticed a (respectable, long-established) shop in the city centre has a big poster in their window advertising the "magic box, all sports, all movies etc" - surely they're on dodgy ground there.

ahmsalo

they are legal for personal use not business

James Delaney

loyatemu wrote: »

I noticed a (respectable, long-established) shop in the city centre has a big poster in their window advertising the "magic box, all sports, all movies etc" - surely they're on dodgy ground there.

I presume Magic Box / Kodi Box & M8 are all different Android boxes.

- Which is the BEST ?
- I have upc wifi & a smart tv - Is it just a case of plugging it in & tuning it ?
- where can I purchase at best price in Dublin or online ?..
Thank U.

ahmsalo

James Delaney wrote: »

I presume Magic Box / Kodi Box & M8 are all different Android boxes.

- Which is the BEST ?
- I have upc wifi & a smart tv - Is it just a case of plugging it in & tuning it ?
- where can I purchase at best price in Dublin or online ?..
Thank U.

I got m8s and am really happy with it
also i found it cheap on ebay just search with this code on ebay
111920181745

CantGetNoSleep

ahmsalo wrote: »

I got m8s and am really happy with it
also i found it cheap on ebay just search with this code on ebay
111920181745

Is it you selling these?

Crimson King

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

Is it you selling these?

Seller is called dublinaccesories. Would think there is a good chance alright

whomitconcerns

ahmsalo wrote: »

they are legal for personal use not business

I think you will find steaming any content "unlicensed" for want of a better word, is illegal, personal or business. By this I mean new movies, live sports, commercial tv stations, etc

Superhorse

Have two M8 boxes. Wonderful piece of kit and saves me a fortune.

Boskowski

Look I'm doing it myself on occasion but anyone who's fooling themselves that you're not downloading and therefore you're legal or some similar construed justification is doing just that, fooling themselves. Their sole purpose is to gain access to copyrighted material that you'd otherwise have to pay for.
Like I said I don't have problem with it but please don't keep saying they're fine. They're at the very best grey and the sole reason why copyright holders aren't pursuing this in Ireland (yet) is that the small Irish market isn't worth it (yet). In other EU countries users of these are being threatened with injunctions at quite a cost to them.

SteM

Kur4mA wrote: »

It seems Kodi have had enough now and will be actively going after ANY of these boxes that use their trademark or branding in advertisements.

https://kodi.tv/the-piracy-box-sellers-and-youtube-promoters-are-killing-kodi/

I'd imagine a lot of DMCA takedown requests are being issued against these streams too so don't be surprised to see issues with these boxes constantly.

In the statement you linked to they said

Team Kodi maintains an officially neutral stance on what users do with their own software. Kodi is open source software, and as long as the GPL is followed, you are welcome to do with it as you like. So while we don’t love this use of Kodi, as long as you know what illegal and potentially dangerous things you are getting yourself into and accept the fact that the Team will not be providing you with any support, then you are welcome to do what you like.

So I don't know why you think they will be going after streams based on the link you provided. It's pretty clear they're going after the sellers of fully loaded boxes, but they're doing nothing to stop people buying android boxes, downloading Kodi from their own site and installing the add ons that are easily available.

Wanderer78

SteM wrote:

So I don't know why you think they will be going after streams based on the link you provided. It's pretty clear they're going after the sellers of fully loaded boxes, but they're doing nothing to stop people buying android boxes, downloading Kodi from their own site and installing the add ons that are easily available.

Kodi covering their arses. Everything fine lads. Carry on

Alf Stewart.

They will find it very difficult to stop the rise of Kodi, is an open source platform, and what people use it for is entirely up to them.

Much like Windows/Android/Openelec/ios is a platform, nothing more.

mass_debater

Wanderer78 wrote: »

Kodi covering their arses. Everything fine lads. Carry on

Don't be so sure. Kodi lost their main Android developer in the last few days and some of the devs are considering dropping Android support completely
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=254686&page=7

SteM

It'll just be splintered off into a separate project if official support is dropped. It's way too popular on Android boxes, tablets and phones for the community to leave drop completely imo.

Alf Stewart.

SteM wrote: »

It'll just be splintered off into a separate project if official support is dropped. It's way too popular on Android boxes, tablets and phones for the community to leave drop completely imo.

Exactly, it'll emerge into and xda developer type platform.

Mourinho

What exactly is the reason they are leaving Kodi and its support? Are the powers trying to make it more locked down where as they believe in it being kept completely open source or what?

mass_debater

Mourinho wrote: »

What exactly is the reason they are leaving Kodi and its support? Are the powers trying to make it more locked down where as they believe in it being kept completely open source or what?

There are too many making money on the illegal side of things

Dravokivich

Mourinho wrote: »

What exactly is the reason they are leaving Kodi and its support? Are the powers trying to make it more locked down where as they believe in it being kept completely open source or what?

Bad PR. Kodi is becoming synonymous with piracy as hoovers where to vacuum cleaners. Even the very nature of this thread is based on piracy as the sole purpose. Whether or not the people asking about it are even aware of it.

Culling android will reduce the footprint as that appears to be where most of this is happening. Particularly android devices sold with the intention of piracy via kodi configurations.

coldfire1x

http://viralkodi.com/news/kodi-schism-kodis-only-android-developer-quits-android-support-could-be-dropped

B@ndit

It makes an interesting read.... I neither agree with nor disagree with the text, Im just sharing what I found.



Essentially, this is what I’ve been commenting about the latest wave of Kodi bashing and propaganda hogwash.

I’m an attorney with years of litigation experience. Kodi bashing has been going on for some years now, especially in the UK. Your little Google search begins with “Another Nail in Kodi’s Coffin” article from “TrustedReviews.” That, and practically every other such article picking up on this “news” came from “TorrentFreak.” You can verify that by reading the article. If you click over to the TorrentFreak article, first notice the author – Ernesto. This guy has been stirring up the slander against Kodi like forever. Here’s one from 2014: https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-site-operator-slapped-10-million-damages-141030/. Just click on his name at the site and check out the crap he’s been propagating for years. First, I guarantee you that he knows ZERO about the law. People paying attention to him have allowed him to stir up panic that is totally unsupportable. He has never actually read the case law, nor does he have a clue as to the history of streaming and copyright, what happened in the European Union, the decision of the highest court in the EU, the panic and reaction it created in stirring up and pushing for the UK to Brexit from the EU – ZERO, NOTHING.

It is beyond irresponsible to spread that kind of propaganda on behalf of the copyright claiming industry. This is reminiscent of the armies of copyright lawyers unleashed when kids began sharing music. Intimidation attempts notwithstanding, you know what happened. The movie and on demand television industries will also change. You can take that to the bank. You have not seen the same armies of copyright lawyers in the current case. For one thing. Ask yourselves why Dish TV did not sue Jeff Bezos & Amazon.

While you’re thinking about that, follow through on the scary lawsuit that has apparently sent everyone scrambling. Do you suppose Dish TV hired one of the major copyright law firms in New York or Los Angeles? I encourage you to look up who they hired and ask yourselves how high powered this great firm hired by Dish TV is. You may not know, so let me clue you in. Copyright is one of the very few specialties in the law that requires special certification. See if you can find if Dish TV’s lawyer(s) is/are certified copyright attorneys.

OK, another small lesson. Just because you file a lawsuit in a court somewhere doesn’t mean crap if you first of all don’t get the defendant personally served by a sheriff or private process server. Now, If you took a look at the Dish TV lawsuit you would find that the defendants are John Doe (1), John Doe (2), etc. Who do you think they’re going to serve? One of the named parties was a http://www.streamingboxes.com. Look them up. Where are their offices located? The Cayman Islands. So, again, who are you going to serve? If you wer in the Cayman Islands and someone flew over there to serve you with a lawsuit from Texas, I doubt you would be very worried. Have you ever gotten a letter from an out of state lawyer threatening you with a lawsuit if you don’t pay a debt? I hope you haven’t jumped to pay him. He’s gonna have a hell of a time trying to collect from you.

Now to TVaddons.ag, where do you suppose that is located? Check out the .ag extension. It turns out it is in Anguila. Again, good luck serving anybody there. Before Ernesto and his kind went on to spread more bull-**** about Kodi, they should have gone over to the Texas county courthouse and checked if Dish TV actually served somebody. There has to what is called a “return of service” in the court file along with the complaint. No real news organization would report this garbage unless and until there is actual proof of a serious complaint that looks like they have actual people and/or corporations with identifiable responsible parties under compulsion to appear and answer before a court that has obtained legal personal jurisdiction in the case.

Since you people are not lawyers, you don’t know that citing an article form the Telegraph is also complete bull-****. See the little .uk at the end of those articles? These have also been a regular staple of fear mongering. Nothing that happens in courts in the UK has any validity on anything that may happen in a court in the US. So be very careful when you pull up all the Kodi bashing irresponsible propaganda from UK media sources that are little more than press releases from copyright claiming industry. You need to look at the history of the actual cases that were brought in the UK, know that they were a panic reaction to the decision of the EU High Court denying the claim that streaming violates copyright.
That is the key issue, and everybody writing these nonsense slanderous articles have come close to examining that. Pay close attention. I guarantee you that nearly ALL these Kodi bashing articles are from the UK. Google it. I have at least twenty recent ones. This is not news. It’s a campaign.

Even MSN articles scaring people that Kodi “users” could get up to 10 years in prison is doubly irresponsible. First, again, I encourage you to check. Did you notice that website is also from the UK — http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/? Really folks, imagine that site was in, say India, or Afghanistan, or Indonesia. Get a grip. This is propaganda pure and simple. Also, any careful study of how copyright violation cases have actually been prosecuted in the US (the only relevant jurisdiction for people in the US), would reveal that 10 years in prison for an end viewer of even actual infringing content that is just freely available to anyone searching the Internet is absolute nonsense. I suppose all of you are immediately shutting your browsers when you see a video on YouTube for music that you have not actually gone out and purchased.

If you are a copyright claimer, you should focus your attention on parties actually stealing your content and publishing it, and with the universal Internet, again, good luck with that. Face it, you’re going to have to change your business model.

And, if you, or Ernesto over at TorrentFreak, or anybody, had done some research and found what has actually happened to cases brought in the US, you would have found that the greatest likelihood is that the copyright holders will settle for some type of royalty – better to get some profit than nothing at all. And, if you had actually been keeping up with what is happening in the third-party addon industry, you would also know that the trend is to turn those services in to fee serviced. They begin making money, creating an audience. A royalty settlement seems the most likely resolution.

I have long referred anyone interested in piracy claims to go watch the excellent lawyer TV Show “The Good Wife.” Season 6, Episode 17, “Undisclosed Recipients.” The copyright claimers are not going to stop this. Not only that, the very idea of copyright is a granted monopoly that was intended to last a limited time. It has muted and developed into an out of control exploitation scheme. Google “copyright gone crazy” and do some research. It is unfortunate that people do not do serious homework before being sucked in by vague, irrelevant nonsense, and it is grossly irresponsible for people who claim to be reporting news not to get properly informed before they spread someone’s self-interested propaganda.

From the defendant character accused of piracy in the referenced episode to the copyright claimer: “You know, the next killer app isn’t coming from some corporate office in Seattle or San Jose. It’s coming from some 16 year old in Warsaw to be decided by a 14 year old’s code in Mumbai. You obsess so much about copyright and ERM (Enterprise Risk Management), you’re missing what’s great about what’s going on. You’re building fences and we’re trying to tear them all down, not because we hate you, but because we’re trying to build the next big thing. So let’s do it, because it’s gonna happen either way.”

Let me know when you see a serious article on this in the Wall Street Journal or in the Journal of the American Bar Association. In the meantime, please share this and stop spreading the poop these people are shoveling.

RossieMan

Your reading dates skills are ****e.

Kristopherus

RossieMan wrote: »

Your reading dates skills are ****e.

Why are you shooting the messenger?

dubrov

RossieMan wrote:

Your reading dates skills are ****e.

Eh, I'll need a translator for that one.

I think most people realise the articles suggesting Kodi will be shut down are biased junk.

If it gets banned then so will Google, Facebook, televisions, mobile phones........

RossieMan

This thread hadn't been used in over a year. Anyone who thinks they'll be able to shut down the likes of Kodi/internet streams is niave.

Stoner

dubrov wrote:

If it gets banned then so will Google, Facebook, televisions, mobile phones........

I used Kodi pointing at my NAS home movie and music collection for years.

It's a great bit of software can has many great legal uses