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XBMC's Piracy Stance: Draft
#16
The fact of the matter is, for better or for worse, the foundation has been formed in the US. In Delaware specifically, I think. This means, regardless of where our various website pieces are located, "we" are located in the US and have to abide by fairly stringent rules.
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#17
If the folks involved in creating, distributing or maintaining XBMC or its supporting infrastructure (e.g. this web site) feel exposed, they have the right - obligation, perhaps - to defend themselves.

So, I understand your stance, and I think your basic rules are reasonable. What gets more difficult is where the definition of "potentially legal uses" varies between countries - there, I guess the strict letter of the ultimate governing law (whether it's Delaware or somewhere else, whether it covers the foundation or the staff) has to apply, and if that covers "facilitating", "aiding and abetting" or similar then you're still screwed. I don't know if there's any way to militate against this situation, such as re-incorporation - but we certainly don't want XBMC to get the same mass image as The Pirate Bay, for example, so even that would have to be considered carefully if it could be perceived to be done specifically to soften the legal position.

I think your "... if you can stream it ordinarily, we consider that okay" stance is laudable, since that keeps alive iPlayer, YouTube and similar on-demand add-ons: they're a major part of XBMC's flexibility for many people and are far better than the rubbish built into my television. But, let's face it, there are some add-ons and discussions for which we simply can't pass the red face test if challenged, and those are what're leaving people exposed.
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#18
The fact that this discussion is taking place at all is an indication of how grown up this project has become. Whether or not individual users use pirated content, XBMC has to protect itself. That means keeping anything legally questionable out of the codebase and out of the official repo. Logically, in line with this, any discussion of possibly illegal augmentations to the program need to be kept off the website.

As Robotica said, the fact that there is not only an official repo, allows for other activity in territories with different laws, with no comeback on the XBMC project and it's obligations under US Law.

As the end user you make your choices and whether they are the right choices or the wrong choices according to whatever local Law you abide by, XBMC itself is insulated. That's something that's important to me.

Jim
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#19
Once again, we're being told what to do by the yanks, personally i don't know what this means for 90% of the addons, which is one of the reasons why xbmc is so popular, surely if you ban these addons, they will just shift to another media player, along with many users of xbmc in my opinion.
We all now that legal sites tend to be rubbish anyways....sad days looming on us....
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#20
falafael Wrote:Once again, we're being told what to do by the yanks, personally i don't know what this means for 90% of the addons, which is one of the reasons why xbmc is so popular, surely if you ban these addons, they will just shift to another media player, along with many users of xbmc in my opinion.
We all now that legal sites tend to be rubbish anyways....sad days looming on us....

I think you misread. They will not be banned from xbmc but just not discussed on this forum or in offcial repo.
Like Nate said there are plenty of 3rd party repos that still could offer those add-ons.
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#21
yeah, i just re-read the thread myself, what you get with working nights!!
Thanks!
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#22
i think this is a good idea, granted some popular addon topics will be closed the overall direction in xbmc is a positive one.

I think xbmc should be positive in purchasing media from legal sources and maybe that can add to the xbmc experience. Maybe there will be an addon that allowes you to purchase and download from Amazon or iTunes and scrape directly into xbmc!
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#23
krish_2k4 Wrote:....
I think xbmc should be positive in purchasing media from legal sources and maybe that can add to the xbmc experience. Maybe there will be an addon that allowes you to purchase and download from Amazon or iTunes and scrape directly into xbmc!

It won't take long before DRM capable (binary) addons are available using other repro's, but they won't go into the official repo (since it's GPL). But Addons connecting to legal sources without DRM could go into the official repo.
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#24
natethomas Wrote:The fact of the matter is, for better or for worse, the foundation has been formed in the US. In Delaware specifically, I think. This means, regardless of where our various website pieces are located, "we" are located in the US and have to abide by fairly stringent rules.

Simple reestablish the foundation to outside the US and then transfer all assets. Besides the US will likely welcome the move b/c they do not like business anyways. Wink
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#25
ZERO <ibis>' Wrote:Simple reestablish the foundation to outside the US and then transfer all assets. Besides the US will likely welcome the move b/c they do not like business anyways. Wink

Yes, like it's really simple to do that Smile
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#26
Subtitles would have to go, TheTVDB would have to go. I'm sorry to say that basing it in the United States was not very smart. Even before SOPA it was pretty clear that the US was not somewhere you would have wanted to have links with. As a multiple times donor I feel really let down.

Respect for your work, respect for all you have created but today I'm let down. I tell it like I feel it. Sorry.
For troubleshooting and bug reporting please make sure you read this first (usually it's enough to follow instructions in the second post).
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#27
I would like to move my entire house to another country Big Grin
Read/follow the forum rules.
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#28
I see http://xbmc.org/theuni/2011/12/29/possib...e-tonight/ it seems relevant, I report it for people that don't watch the homepage.
For troubleshooting and bug reporting please make sure you read this first (usually it's enough to follow instructions in the second post).
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#29
natethomas Wrote:Our ultimate goal is to try to inhibit creativity as little as possible, while also being as morally respectful of the rights of content owners and creators as we can.

Don't you forget the most important goal? Being FREE (as in the spirit of the GPL).
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#30
It should be made clear: we are only talking about discussions on xbmc.org

XBMC will never prevent you form installing the add-ons and repos of your choice.

It's just that certain ones will need to be discussed on some other forum that's not on xbmc.org to provide some legal distance.
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XBMC's Piracy Stance: Draft2