Many of us know of Kodi, a very popular open-source media player used to pirate TV shows and movies. This software has been added to set-top boxes worldwide to give the impression that Kodi is a haven for pirates, but such is not the case.
Is Kodi safe and legal?
The creators of Kodi have never claimed that the software was designed for such uses, but nevertheless, many have made the mistake of saying such is the case. For example, the folks who are behind the many Kodi boxes make it seem as if the media player comes packed with all the illegal third-party add-ons.
Bear in mind that the Kodi developers have not sanctioned these add-ons, but seeing as the software is open source, we see no way for the developers to stop it from happening.
Not too long ago, the BBC released an article about Kodi that viewed the software as a piracy epidemic. From what we can tell, the mainstream media is attempting to paint Kodi as a Popcorn Time replacement without realizing the software’s true nature.
Is Kodi a Piracy App?
If we look at the state of web browsers today, they can do almost everything on the internet. Want to watch a movie illegally? Simply fire up Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome and visit one of the many websites supporting illegal content streaming.
Web browsers also allow users to download illegal content whenever they want. Users downloading illegal content was not the intention of the creators of Edge, Firefox and Chrome. They cannot stop it either because the Internet is open. It’s a similar situation to Kodi, but some folks have decided to look at it from a different perspective.
The add-ons are the real reason Kodi is making headlines
If we go deeper into the beehive, it’s clear that without the add-ons, the Kodi Media Player would just be a regular media player. But hey, Google Chrome and other web browsers support add-ons that allow for doing many things.
For example, if you’re looking to watch media from a website but you’re not in the United States, no problem, for there’s an extension available through the Chrome store fix that problem. Do we hear media outlets making a fuss about that? Of course not
Here’s what the developers had to say about the allegations in a recent blog post:
“Team Kodi is officially tired of this. We are tired of new users coming into the forum, asking why the box that ‘we’ sold them was broken. We are tired of this endless campaign by dishonest salesmen to push a single use of Kodi that nobody on the team actually recommends. We are tired of these salesmen lying to users, claiming that pirate streams and pirate boxes are ‘legal’ when they are absolutely not at some level or other.”
Kodi is free, legal and safe to use
Kodi is simply a media player with advanced features, and it is free, legal, and safe to use. It is always available in the Microsoft Store. Kodi publicly displays your IP address, so we recommend using a VPN when streaming on Kodi. It also allows unverified third-party add-ons, and so caution should be exercised when using third-party repositories as they may host malicious add-ons containing malware or unauthorized data collection. It is best to stick to the official Kodi repository that offers safe and legitimate add-ons to ensure security.
