Hi All,
today I will talk about Kodi, if it is legal and safe to use.
Some of you may know what I’m talking about, others are not familiar at all with this name.
I will then give a brief explanation.
Kodi is an open-source media player application.
It was previously named XBMC (Xbox Media Center) and it was the homebrew media player for the first generation Xbox.
This app can run in multiple operating systems and it allows to stream media from the internet or from a network storage.
In poor words, it’s an app that allows you to see videos streamed from the web directly on your PC/TV/Smartphone.
Check the official page here.
Plenty of people use this software to watch TV channels or movies in streaming but not everyone knows what they are doing may not be legal.
Kodi works with add-ons so you need to install additional features in order to watch the streaming videos.
These add-ons can be official, if developed by the same developers of Kodi, or unofficial, created by third parties.
These last add-ons are the most used to watch the latest movies, live sports broadcasts or TV shows but unfortunately they are not all streaming allowed content.
Some of them stream their videos from pirate sources exposing you to possible legal liability, even if you didn't know.
Moreover, these unofficial add-ons may expose your personal information and privacy to several threats and attacks such as the man-in-the-middle attacks (MITM).
To sum up for who is already using Kodi or whoever is interested on using it:
The software itself, is legal as it is to install it on your PC,Smart TV,Smartphone, etc.
Official add-ons may not be interesting as the unofficial ones but they do not expose you to any threat or copyright infringement.
Unofficial add-ons such as Exodus, SportsDevil, SALTS, etc. may be streaming pirated content making you part of illegal activity.
Third parties add-ons downloaded and installed from unknown repositories can expose you to privacy and security threats.
It was already reported by users from different countries to receive copyright infringement notices or warning letters from the ISPs and some reported MITM attacks too.
So, I’m not saying you do not have to use Kodi at all, I’m just suggesting you to pay attention and do some research about the sources or the add-ons before using them.
Aside the fact of using Kodi or not, I strongly recommend you to use a VPN service to protect your network and your privacy from any kind of online threat or attack.
VPN will not only protect you but will also mask and hide your network not only from possible attackers but from your ISP too. Your traffic won't be logged anywhere and you won't leave any track.
There are plenty of VPN services, free and paid.
I recommend you the paid ones as they offer more protection and better features. Otherwise, if you have patience and sources, you can try to build your own VPN server (recommended only for people with network knowledge).
Hoping you found this post interesting, feel free to leave a comment or ask anything and don’t forget to subscribe.
Cheers
