Oliver Haslam·

Kodi Might Soon Add Support For DRM, Here’s Why

Kodi, the ever-popular media playback software has long had a reputation for piracy. That is not because the folks behind the app, the XBMC Foundation, have gone out of their way to open Kodi up to those who want to watch such content and live streams but because its use of add-ons to allow legitimate developers to build additional features into Kodi also gives those a way in.

In an attempt to help prevent all such content within Kodi, the XBMC Foundation is apparently considering building DRM into the app, making it more of a safe haven for content providers.

XBMC Foundation President Nathan Betzen believes that by adding support for “low-level DRM,” Kodi could become an app that content providers and creators would want to bring their wares to legitimately. By providing “a protected environment,” it is thought that Kodi could become a friend of those who vilify it for illegal content that is currently rife.

For its part, the XBMC Foundation has already gone after those who sell Kodi pre-installed on low-powered media boxes and dongles with the express intent of providing such content, but that has not stopped content providers from refusing to understand that Kodi itself is not a tool for illegal content and that preventing it is not as easy as some may think.

If Kodi was to remove support for third-party add-ons for example, its open-source nature would mean it would be a matter of time before they were put back in by someone else.

Banning known add-ons with illegal content would only work for so long, too, with developers simply altering their add-on so as to not be picked up by whatever blacklist Kodi was to use. As with all things in life, things are not quite as simple as some may hope.

When all is said and done though, Kodi needs to find a way to appease content providers and creators in a way that it has not been able to so far. If that is with the use of DRM, then so be it, but whether that will change the way Kodi is perceived by most people in the content business remains to be seen.

(Source: TorrentFreak)

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