Is Kodi/XBMC a popular program because of how easily it organizes personal media, or because of the apps included with the official repository? Partially. It was certainly what drove the program when it was born from the Xbox as the Xbox Media Center. The ability to digitize crowded libraries of DVD’s and Bluray films, organize music and photos all in one place is quite appealing and Kodi is a wonderful and legitimate way to do this for free. There are hundreds apps that do not break copyright rules from international news to CNET and more. There are a number of companies that produce boxes with Kodi installed that are meant for legitimate use. But it is undeniable that one of the reasons for its growing popularity is because it can also be used to watch pirated content. This why the Amazon app store pulled the app from the App Store. It is because of the third party applications. Amazon has good reason to be wary.
People are cracking down
It is for the embrace of those third party apps that the owner of a UK based company was arrested this weekend, see the story here, and why companies like the Sky Stream and Draggon Box advertise as a solution to watch any movie or TV show for free. They don’t say “as long as you own and convert your content you can watch it on our box!” There is no way to do that without paying
unless you are just taking the content. Whether everyone who uses the program is using it for these purposes or not the fact that it can be is what is scaring companies like Amazon, which has numerous partnerships with media companies to consider.
The entertainment industry has long understood piracy was a factor since before the days of black market VHS copies of movies. But the Internet and rise of digital media has taken things to another level seeing apps like Popcorn Time rise only to fall under pressure from the companies that own the rights to the media that they are giving away. Amazon does not want to be dragged into that. At the moment the app is for the first time available in the Google play store. Will it be when you read this?
Don’t Expect Kodi In The Google Store Long
In late 2014 the community known as TV Addons released a custom version of Kodi called TVMC.
For a fleeting second the app was available in the Google Play store before being pulled See story here. It was not even available for a full week. It won’t be long before the Google Play store walks away from its “embrace” of the app.
Kodi Can Be Had Without Google Play
For all of the uproar over Kodi and whether it can be had via an app store the truth is that it does not need to be installed via one. The APK can be installed directly from the official website or installed via USB drives and SD cards on most any Android box on the market. There are even alternative app stores like Aptoide see here for Android apps that have multiple versions of Kodi available. But understand that if you do want to get it with the push of a button it better be soon.
