For consumers, it's a tempting way to get box-sets and films for free. Hundreds of other add-ons, however, offer unauthorised access to paid content. The iPlayer WWW add-on, for example, reminds BBC iPlayer users they need a TV licence. The XBMC Foundation provides a list of recommended add-ons that may not be endorsed by content owners, but only link to content that's legitimately available. Anyone can create add-ons that point to video and audio sources. Kodi itself provides an interface but no content. Now at least these couldn't be sold under the Kodi name.Įnlarge / Lobbied by copyright owners, the government is briefing against Kodi boxes. 'Users have been fooled into wasting money buying boxes running hacked and typically broken versions of XBMC,' explains Betzen, who's known online as natethomas. In 2014, Nathan Betzen, a leading figure in XBMC's community, announced that the software was changing its name to Kodi, a registered trademark. Today, running on a variety of devices, it provides a friendly interface to play video and audio content, whether from static files, torrents, or a live stream. Kodi is an open source media player program that started life as XBMC (Xbox Media Center). So what is Kodi, and why is it such a threat to The Man?

It's not that they've stumbled on an underground hack scene the stories have been briefed by copyright owners and law enforcement agencies. This year the Sun, the Mirror, the Express, and the Daily Star have run splashes ranging from 'Kodi Crackdown' through 'Kodi Killers' to 'Kodi TOTAL BAN!'. You know a technology's gone mainstream when the tabloids start yelling about it.

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