Google’s Kodi Crackdown is a step too far. The company has adjusted its search so that is is more difficult to find the Kodi website. This has been done by adjusting the search engines auto-correct the helpful “did you mean” suggestion. We have been looking into to this for a few days and have concluded that targetting Kodi and the XBMC foundation is simply unfair.
Editorial note, reporters keep mentioning, without citing it a study that shows that 70% of Kodi uses access illegal content. If you would like to read the actual report on the subject you can do so here. There are about 4 sentences in the 6-page report starting at the bottom of page 5. This is an uneven and poorly targeted jab being made for PR reasons and not to address the problem of piracy.
Why is it unfair?
As the XBMC foundation has said numerous times, the group of developers behind the software did not develop Kodi for the purpose of piracy. There has never been an investigation that proves otherwise. This is just the fact. The fact that developers have used Kodi to promote piracy is not the fault of the XBMC Foundation. If there is some sort of proof that the XBMC foundation is being untruthful as to the purpose of Kodi then a different discussion will take place.
Searching for Kodi
Whatever Google has put in place has not been as effective as people seem to think it has been so far. We did a search for Kody and guess what. It said do you mean “Kodi”. We also searched for what is Kody? Again it referenced us to articles on Kodi and the Kodi.
Searching For Piracy On Google is easy
Now here is where the rubber meets the road. Want to find free movie websites? Want to find out what the best add-ons for Kodi are if you want free movies and sports and live TV? Guess where you can find them? Go to Google and do a search for it. You will find numerous results from YouTube showing exactly how to do it. You know that Google owns YouTube right? Does Google realize this? More so, the videos advertising piracy methods whether they are about add-ons for Kodi or numerous piracy APKs made to operate perfectly on the Android Platform, (hey isn’t that owned by Google too?) carry advertising. Google makes money from people watching advertising on videos that promote stealing. It’s almost as though Google doesn’t really care if people engage in Piracy as long as they get some money out of it.
Does Google want to stop piracy?
One of the most common denominators with the sales fully loaded android boxes featuring Kodi and other APKs is…..Andriod. That would be Google’s software. IOS does not natively support platforms that promote piracy. You can not sideload apps that promote piracy unless you go through a pretty complicated process. But Android is wide open.
The question the MPAA should be asking is what is Google’s position on APKs, YouTube Videos featuring “The best new kodi Build For Movies”, “the best APK you will ever Need” and others.
We support anti-piracy
The Streaming Advisor has long refused ads and advertorials from websites and apps that promote piracy and has taken a strong stance in our writing to speak out against the practice. While we have reported on some of the bigger names in the piracy community we never endorse it. We would applaud Google, Amazon and any other responsible media company who takes a stand to stop people from enriching themselves through stealing and distributing the creative work of others. But the actions surrounding Kodi are simply a reaction to the mischaracterization of the platform. Until Google stops handing out silver play buttons to piracy enthusiasts and rewarding piracy websites with first page rankings it should stay out of the conversation concerining piracy prevention.
