Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: "Kodi" Amazon fire stick

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-23-2019, 06:06 PM:

So I just had another semi-regular customer tell me she wasn't planning to come to our movie this week (a film that's only 15 days old) because she "already saw it on Amazon." I said, "how can that be, it's not out on Amazon yet," and she said "we have one of those fire sticks so it's on there." I said, "that's illegal you know" and she just shrugged like they always do.

I keep hearing stories like this from people more and more and wonder how many other people there are who aren't saying anything...probably a depressing number.

Is anything being done to combat the spread of this kind of thing or are we all just screwed over it? I know the "Kodi" program has lots of legit uses.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 08-23-2019, 06:35 PM:

Not much you can do about it. I posted here a while back that they're selling these boxes at the local hardware store here. They still have them out for sale so I guess they must be selling enough to keep stocking them.

I've had a few people tell me that they don't need to come to the theatre any more because they have one. I just say "That's nice" and leave it at that.

Posted by Michael Cornish (Member # 6529) on 08-23-2019, 08:02 PM:

There are also some web sites out there that are "releasing" features almost on street date.

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 08-24-2019, 12:01 AM:

One of the problems were fighting is people thinking these things are legit because the software comes pre-loaded and looks very professional. I saw this first hand when I visited my inlaws a couple years ago. My wife's brother does It, so he knows it's illegal. However, other members of the family thought the fact the software looks legit means it's totally legal.

The one thing that could help is if the studios/MPAA went after businesses selling the modified boxes. I know one of the arguments has been that they CAN be used for completely legal purposes. However, the reality is the vast majority of users are streaming illegal content.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 08-24-2019, 01:42 AM:

quote: Justin Hamaker
The one thing that could help is if the studios/MPAA went after businesses selling the modified boxes. I know one of the arguments has been that they CAN be used for completely legal purposes. However, the reality is the vast majority of users are streaming illegal content.

Well, it's like the good old VCRs and cassette decks, they can be used to play bootlegged content, just like you can easily install any of those illegal streaming plugins into almost any Android, AndroidTV or generic Kodi system. (Again, Kodi is just a generic media center and a pretty good one, Kodi itself is perfectly legal.) My TV runs AndroidTV, I'm pretty sure with a few clicks on the remote, I could load one of those many illegal streaming services right into there, no box needed... I've got Kodi on there, because it's much easier accessing our own content via there than via any of the native Google offerings, which genuinely suck at it, I guess on purpose, to frustrate you at playing any of the content you own, because they want you to buy it from them... Easy, just one click and just $5 a pop away...

It's not hard for a bunch of those shady figures to come up with a modified Fire stick or Android box that directly connects to one or more of those illegal offerings.

I get that they're sold on-line, often via China, etc, what I don't understand though, is that there are still brick and mortar shops publicly advertising those products. Not just that you're selling a highly illegal product, do you really want to sell something that could stop working any time?

Posted by Ed Gordon (Member # 10866) on 08-24-2019, 03:18 PM:

Ernst & Young Study

quote:

Ernst & Young Study Shows Positive Relationship Between Moviegoing and Streaming
by Phil Contrino
News Reel Blog January 9, 2019

EY QUEST conducted a survey of 2,500 respondents, 80% of whom saw at least one movie in theatres in the last 12 months. The primary data collected in the survey was: (1) movie theatre attendance in the last 12 months, (2) streaming consumption in the last 12 months, and (3) demographic characteristics of the respondents.

Those who attended movies in theatres more frequently also tended to consume streaming content more frequently. For every race and age demographic, average streaming hours per week was higher for respondents who visited a movie theatre 9 times or more than respondents who visited a movie theatre only once or twice. Moreover, respondents who visited a movie theatre only once or twice in the last 12 months reported an average of 7 hours of streaming per week versus 11 hours of streaming per week for those who visited a movie theatre 9 or more times.

Those who did not attend a movie in a theatre in the last 12 months were more likely to report less streaming activity than those who did attend at least one movie in the same period. Of those who didn’t visit a movie theatre in the last 12 months, nearly half (49%) didn’t stream any online content. Of those who did not visit a movie theatre at all in the last 12 months, only 18% streamed online content for 8 or more hours per week.

From: https://www.natoonline.org/blog/reel-blog/ernst-young-study-shows-positive-relationship-between-moviegoing-and-streaming/

The executive study is available to download at: https://www.natoonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/EY-NATO-Report-Executive-Summary-12-14-18.pdf

The full report is at: https://www.natoonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Theatrical-and-Streaming-Study-12.10.2018.pdf

The conclusion is that there is a positive relationship between streaming and movie theater attendance. However, the study does not include the impact of illegal streaming. Anything being hosted illegally for streaming or download can only get there via copying legal streams or physical media. That being the case, if a potential theater customer is willing to wait 3 to 4 months to see a specific movie, the theater can't to anything to get that customer. The majority of the audience for what was second run has moved from theaters to living rooms.

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 10-10-2019, 03:03 PM:

I had one of these but it's now outdated, can't access anything anymore and need to buy a new unit to get the updated software. Hardly ever used it anyways as the quality was sub-par, and was a given that any current movie was shot off a screen with a camera.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 10-10-2019, 03:22 PM:

If you follow specific news closely, you will notice they ARE after the sales networks for both hardware and software/plugins. As it is a modular combination of legal hardware and illegal software, they just pop up in different places and it needs to be an ongoing effort, they can not simply catch a few and be done with it.

E.g. around the end of last june, they arrested a software developer responsible for a specific KODI plugin that allowed downloading illegal content. When this became known, quite a few sites hosting this and other software gave up in fear of further prosecution.

So, it's not that they can't do anything.

- Carsten

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 10-10-2019, 11:45 PM:

American movie studios have the means of defeating these mass consumption Internet movie piracy platforms. But it means doing away with some of their douchebag conveniences.

Getting rid of private screeners recorded onto DVD, Blu-ray or flash memory sticks would eliminate one major vector of movie piracy. Without these things in the wild the pirates would have no high quality dupes to sell. Pretty much everything they sold would be camera phone footage of movie theater screens. Utter crap. Here's an idea: make all the VIP douchebags watch the pre-release screen in an actual controlled press screening where an actual professional screening room is used. Make zero fucking exceptions to that. Much of the piracy problem would be solved overnight.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 10-16-2019, 05:49 AM:

They're in the process of defeating themselves. The day they reduce the theatrical release window to zero, that's also about the time it will take for high quality releases of movies released within that window will take to pop up on on-line bootleg exchanges.

The irony is that the bootlegger, using the pirate-plugin du-jour can probably watch both the newest Batman and Spider-Man movie without even having to switch between services...

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 10-16-2019, 03:46 PM:

If the theatrical release window falls to zero days the commercial movie theater business will fall to zero too. And it could dramatically change or even eliminate the movie studios as we know them. Everything will be TV shows then. Boring.

TV shows are pirated too, but I don't think it happens at the same scale as Hollywood feature movies. Usually the most desired TV shows for pirates are ones that play on premium cable networks like HBO.