Kodi v18 Leia - Beta 1

We hereby present you the first Beta build of Kodi v18 as we are heading towards the final release. Since we are now in Beta stage our focus will be on solving bugs and possible usability problems. So far it has been proven to be quite solid to use as a daily driver for those who were brave enough to try it out. Of course you should still keep in mind it's not a final release yet and that on any upgrade a small glitch could happen as we are still doing rework. Once you decide to give it a try it is highly recommended that you create a backup first.

Currently included

A full changelog is nearly impossible to create and in this release article we will only cover the basics. For a more extensive list you can visit our wiki page v18 (Leia) changelog which will be update along the way. This third alpha release contain no big new features as we are focus on bugfixing only.

Make sure to also go through our news sections which contain all past announcements regarding the Leia release and some highlights of what it will contain.

Stability and usability is key

In general the whole stability has been improved quite a lot. The times you still get glitches or occasional crashes haven been reduced due to just ripping out not so well coded parts and replaced with a more structured design and standard. Not that the old code was bad however over time new insights were gained and having newer code standards just make it better. Untangling all parts or components and make them behave better next to each other has been one of the biggest efforts done so far.

Current available skins

Due to changes in how Kodi works skins need to be updated for each release. As of this moment we have the following ones have been update by their developers and are readily available from our repository.

Adnoic, Aeon Nox 5, Andromeda, Black Glass Nova, Chroma, Confluence, fTV, Grid, Mimic, Nebula, Omni, Rapier, Sio2, Xperience1080

More will follow at a later point in time when we approach final release.

The wiki pages

One of the best sources of information next to our forum for asking question and finding answers is the Kodi wiki pages. With each release certain aspects of the software change and this of course needs to be reflected on the official wiki pages. Several team members and regular users spend quite some time updating and tweaking these pages to become a helpfull one stop place for all information.

The V18 Lei t-shirt

Inspired by the galaxy far, far away theme, our resident artist Sam went above and beyond and designed perhaps the coolest Kodi announce video of all time.

We loved his work so much that we're modeling the Kodi 18 shirt after it along with more art to come. Here it is, our newest, coolest shirt: K-18L

The story continues

Although we don’t really have a clear future plan or clear cut goals (except making a great media center) we would welcome any developer who wants to spend time on getting Kodi better in every way. Either improving the core code to newer standards, fixing bugs or implementing a new feature we haven’t thought of. Compared to years ago the code has become better to understand and follow for newcomers to get started. Once we get something written down of certain to reach goals we will certainly share them.

A great improvement has been made on the documentation that explains how to compile and work on the core code for Kodi. We highly recommend to read the article Kodi's GitHub codebase new face and better documentation.

 

Release time

Since we now started the Beta cycle a final release will be on the near horizon. When the final release will actually be is yet unknown as it all depends on the stability now more people will start using the v18 builds.

That’s about it for now and we’ll go back at improving this upcoming v18 release. Should you wish to give it a try a new version is readily available each day as well as nightly version. We can certainly recommend trying it out however take in mind that it’s not fully production and living room ready yet (take a backup). So far a guestimate of several tens of thousands users already use it so it can’t be that bad can it. You can get it from the download page clicking on the platform of choice and hitting the “pre release” tab. For Android and Windows we have an easy to use download add-on which you can find in our repository.

Go to the Official download page and choose the platform of choice and you will find these builds under the pre release tab.

If you do appreciate our work feel free to give a small donation so we can continue our effort. Just find the big "Donate" button at the top of the website.

May the force be with you…..

Galleries: 

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New Campaign Aims to “Save Music” Ahead of EU Copyright Filter Vote

In 2016, the European Commission announced plans to modernize EU copyright law, something that was to later develop into a worldwide controversy.

A major part of the proposal is Article 13, a text that aims to make online services liable for uploaded content unless they take “effective and proportionate” measures to prevent copyright infringements.

The implication is that platforms such as YouTube would be compelled to implement upload filtering and then pro-actively monitor to prevent future infringing uploads.

Back in June, the Legal Affairs Committee of the Parliament (JURI) adopted the proposals but a month later, following a plenary vote in the European Parliament, opposition mounted with 278 votes in favor and 318 against.

This somewhat unexpected turnaround meant that the proposed legislation was re-opened for amendments and a vote was scheduled for September 12th, just 15 days from today. With the date edging ever closer, groups and individuals on both sides of the debate have been drumming up support. A new campaign just launched by music industry groups in the UK is the latest addition.

“The UK music industry has united to call on EU Members of Parliament to secure music’s future,” the #LOVEMUSIC campaign site reads.

The heavyweights behind the campaign

As the image above shows, the campaign has the support of some of the most powerful music groups in the UK, including the BPI, PRS For Music, and licensing group PPL. They’re singing with one voice in favor of Article 13 and against companies who they claim abuse artists’ rights.

“The creative industry is a vibrant ecosystem that supports many creators. Music creators are like butterflies in this rainforest – beautiful and delicate,” they write.

“Yet some of the global tech giants are laying waste to our creative world, threatening music’s vibrancy and diversity by not fairly compensating creators for the use of their work. Creators need protection or the world of music will suffer.”

The #LOVEMUSIC campaign site asks visitors to add their signature to the Make Internet Fair petition, which calls on EU decision-makers to recognize that “platforms like YouTube are involved in reproducing and making our works available under copyright laws” and ensure that the “safe harbor non-liability regime does not apply to them as it is meant for technical intermediaries only.”

While most protests are taking place on the Internet, the platform that will be most affected by Article 13, opponents of the proposed legislation have been urged to gather in public too. Julia Reda MEP previously published details of a day of action to take place yesterday in various locations around Europe, but that will be just the tip of the protest iceberg as September 12th draws closer.

Aside from the importance of the legislation itself, it will be intriguing to see how this new vote takes shape. Following their shock defeat in July, major players in the music industry called foul, claiming that the protests had been automated and organized by “big tech”, something addressed by Reda recently.

“They’re claiming the protest was all fake, generated by bots and orchestrated by big internet companies. According to them, Europeans don’t actually care about their freedom of expression,” she wrote.

“We don’t actually care about EU lawmaking enough to make our voices heard. We will just stand idly by as our internet is restricted to serve corporate interests.”

To prove these predictions wrong, one of the focal points of the ‘NO’ campaign is a Change.org petition. At the time of writing it has in excess of 951,000 signatories, with the million target probably just a few days away.

Also attracting eyeballs is the SavetheInternet portal, which provides detail on both Article 13 and Article 11, which is commonly referred to as the “link tax.”

While the music industry has mostly tried to avoid comparisons with the technology versus content industries battle that ignited over the failed SOPA legislation in 2012, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the similarities in respect of Article 13. On Twitter, in particular, the rhetoric has been particularly bitter, a situation that’s unlikely to improve any time soon.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

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Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 08/27/18

This week we have two newcomers in our chart.

Deadpool 2 is the most downloaded movie again.

The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.

RSS feed for the articles of the recent weekly movie download charts.

This week’s most downloaded movies are:

Movie Rank	Rank last week	Movie name	IMDb Rating / Trailer
Most downloaded movies via torrents
1	(1)	Deadpool 2	8.0 / trailer
2	(…)	Ocean’s Eight	6.3 / trailer
3	(2)	Avengers: Infinity War	8.7 / trailer
4	(3)	Upgrade	7.7 / trailer
5	(…)	Hereditary	8.7 / trailer
6	(7)	Tag	6.7 / trailer
7	(4)	Adrift	6.7 / trailer
8	(6)	Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (subbed HDRip)	6.5 / trailer
9	(5)	Skyscraper (subbed HDRip)	6.1 / trailer
10	(8)	Rampage	6.3 / trailer

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

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Cox Pays Substantial Settlement to End ‘Repeat Infringer’ Piracy Lawsuit

December 2015, a Virginia federal jury ruled that Internet provider Cox Communications was responsible for the copyright infringements of its subscribers.

The ISP was found guilty of willful contributory copyright infringement and ordered to pay music publisher BMG Rights Management $25 million in damages.

Unhappy with the outcome, Cox filed an appeal, with some success.

Earlier this year the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit overturned the original verdict due to an erroneous jury instruction and ordered a new trial. However, the ISP would start at a significant disadvantage, without safe harbor protection, because it failed to implement a meaningful repeat infringer policy.

This week would mark the start of the new trial but this can be scrapped, as both parties have chosen to settle the matter out of court instead.

Cox agreed to pay an undisclosed settlement amount to BMG. While the scale of the settlement remains undisclosed the music rights group notes that it is “extremely happy” with the “substantial settlement.”

In the initial case, Cox was ordered to pay $25 million plus $8.5 million in costs. It would make sense that the settlement amount is lower than that, but it’s likely still in the millions.

“While the financial terms of the settlement are confidential, we are happy they reflect the seriousness of this case,” says Keith Hauprich, BMG’s General Counsel in North America.

“This was a landmark case in which BMG took on the third biggest internet service provider in the United States to defend and establish the principle that in order to benefit from a so-called ‘safe harbor’ defense, an ISP has responsibilities.”

BMG said it agreed to a settlement because it has already established in court that ISPs are obliged to take action against repeat infringers. If ISPs don’t take reasonable measures, they can lose their DMCA safe harbor, which opens them up to piracy liability claims.

We reached out to Cox requesting a comment on the outcome but at the time of publication, we have yet to hear back.

The case has caused a lot of uproar in the ISP community. Several companies have taken a good look at their internal policies and likely tightened them where needed. Those who haven’t should pay attention, BMG’s General Counsel warns.

“Other ISPs should take note that the law gives protection to the work of artists and songwriters. We will not hesitate to take action where necessary,” Hauprich stresses.

The BMG vs. Cox case was the first of its kind, but it’s certainly not the last. Several Internet providers have been sued over the repeat infringer issue over the past several years, including Grande Communications, which was taken to court by the major record labels.

Seizing the opportunity, the same labels also filed a lawsuit against Cox recently. This case lists more than 10,000 works, which means that the potential damages exceed a billion dollars.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

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TVAddons and Dish Network Settle Copyright Infringement Lawsuit

Last year, American satellite and broadcast provider Dish Network targeted TVAddons, the largest repository of third-party Kodi add-ons.

In a complaint filed in a federal court in Texas, TVAddons and its Canadian founder Adam Lackman were accused of copyright infringement, facing millions of dollars in potential damages.

The site was briefly taken down but returned after a few weeks, albeit without some of the more troubling add-ons. TVAddons and Lackman were planning to put up a fight and maintained that the site had always adhered to the DMCA.

Over the past several months both Dish and TVAddons were getting ready to take the matter to trial, but this weekend it became apparent that this is no longer needed.

The parties have signed a confidential settlement agreement and, as a result, Dish decided to drop the case. While the exact terms of the agreement remain private, a TVAddons representative informs TorrentFreak that they’re happy with the outcome.

“Sometimes a settlement can be considered a win for both sides. From an economic perspective, it was the ideal conclusion since the Canadian lawsuit has already destroyed our financial resources.

“It also respected our morals and promise to protect our users and developers at all cost, since no data nor user/developer information was exchanged as part of the settlement,” the TVAddons spokesperson adds.

The upside for TVAddons is quite obvious, as the site and its founder had a lot to lose financially. Dish’s motivations are less obvious. It’s not clear whether TVAddons agreed to pay damages, but that could be a factor.

TVAddons also agreed to process Dish’s future copyright claims more swiftly, if any issues arise.

“As far as our site goes, we maintain that we have always complied with copyright law. We have however agreed to an expedited DMCA process for any complaints DISH Network may have in the future,” TVAddons tells us.

The settlement agreement was signed by TVAddons founder Adam Lackman and Dish. This is interesting, as Lackman announced just a few weeks ago that he had “resigned” from all administrative roles at the site to ensure its future.

This suggests that someone else is in charge. However, a representative of the site informs TorrentFreak that there are agreements in place to ensure that the expedited DMCA agreement between Dish and Lackman will be honored.

The settlement does not include Shani, the developer of ZemTV, who was sued in the same case. The UK resident previously chose not to defend himself in court, as he lacked the funds to put up a proper defense.

TVAddons and Lackman are not out of trouble either. The Canadian lawsuit filed by an army of Canadian telecoms giants, including Bell Canada and Rogers Communications, is still on.

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Will Reddit’s /r/Piracy Sub-Reddit Get Shut Down?

To millions of loyal users, Reddit is one of the Internet’s most valuable resources. The platform covers every subject one can think of, plus hundreds that have never entered mainstream consciousness.

Along with fairly benign topics such as news, health, beauty and sport, Reddit caters to those whose hobbies and interests are a little more controversial. Dozens of so-called sub-Reddits are dedicated to most aspects of piracy, for example, something that has landed a few of them in hot water.

Take the /r/megalinks sub-Reddit, for example. Last year the discussion forum was shut down in a blaze of bad publicity after the site accumulated enough ‘strikes’ to trigger Reddit’s repeat infringer policy.

Megalinks was a very good example of sub-Reddit simply waiting to be closed down. The entire purpose of the community was to post links to infringing content stored on file-hosting site MEGA. No pirated content was off-limits so when Reddit’s admins decided enough was enough, it was no surprise to see the sub disappear down the drain.

This week, another piracy-focused sub-Reddit found itself disappearing into history. The /r/crackedsoftware forum, which (surprise, surprise) dedicated itself to links to pirated software, also found itself banished by Reddit’s admins. As the image below shows, it too fell foul of Reddit’s ‘repeat infringer’ policy.

No surprise the banhammer came out for this one

With news of these bannings filtering through to other sections of Reddit dedicated to piracy, some users have been asking whether they too could be banished to the digital wilderness. The question has been asked several times on /r/piracy, a sub with more than 244,000 subscribers. So, is it at risk?

To answer that question it’s first necessary to differentiate between sub-Reddits that act as a platform for piracy and those that discuss piracy but do not engage in it, on Reddit itself.

There can be no doubt that /r/megalinks and /r/crackedsoftware fall into the first category. Both sub-Reddits were designed to encourage and then provide access to links to known infringing content. Or, to put it another way, these sub-Reddits acted like The Pirate Bay or any other intentional ‘pirate’ linking site.

While this in itself would probably be enough to put the subs on the wrong side of the law, Reddit only appears to take action against subs when they cause documented copyright infringement problems for the platform. If a sub-Reddit receives repeat complaints from copyright holders, Reddit – as is required under the DMCA – invokes its repeat infringer policy.

At Reddit’s discretion, that repeat infringer policy can be acted upon in two ways. Firstly, Reddit could determine that a particular user is at fault and since he or she is continually posting infringing content, they could be banned. However, if the problem “pervades a whole community“, the entire sub will be banned if it doesn’t clean up its act. Clearly, both Megalinks and CrackedSoftware fall into this category, hence their demise.

Now, compare these two now-defunct subs to /r/piracy, Reddit’s flagship piracy forum with close to 245,000 users. While the sub is no doubt inhabited by many thousands of pirates, its moderators have put in place a set of clear rules to ensure that their home isn’t shut down in the same way as some others.

The sub only has four rules, three of which are dedicated to keeping the discussion both tidy and on topic. However, rule three is the sub’s most important, despite being a single line long. To be sure, however, the point is repeated and rephrased.

“No asking or linking pirated/copyrighted content,” it reads. “Do not request or link to pirated/copyrighted content,” notes the reminder.

It is this rule (and its enforcement by the sub’s moderators) that ensures that /r/piracy does not often find itself mentioned in DMCA notices sent to Reddit. If there are no links to infringing content, copyright holders can’t send a valid DMCA notice and Reddit will not be required to invoke its repeat infringer policy.

Advice from Reddit to keep a piracy-focused sub in shape

Of course, even the most fastidious of moderation teams can accidentally let something infringing slip through the net (even mods have to sleep), meaning that it’s still possible for an infringing post or comment to appear on /r/piracy. However, that is not the forum’s main aim, something which seems to go a long way with Reddit’s admins.

There are threats to the sub, however. A minority of users, many of whom simply can’t be bothered to read the rules and/or stick to them, are the number one concern.

While regular subscribers rarely attempt to post infringing content without being asked, every day people wander in and post questions demanding links for movie X or TV show Y. Other users rarely respond and the mods act quickly, but it’s not a great look for /r/piracy, especially when the mods work so hard to keep things legal.

In short and as things stand, /r/piracy seems a solid discussion forum that operates well within Reddit’s rules and is unlikely to be shut down. However, a little common sense in respect of Rule 3 wouldn’t go amiss and perhaps the threat of a temporary ban here and there would help to focus the minds of the minority of users who play fast and loose with the sub’s future.

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TorrentFreak is Blocked as a Pirate Site and Hacking Resource

From Australia to Sweden, all around the world courts have ordered ISPs to block access to pirate sites.

This usually happens after a careful review by a judge, who weighs the arguments from copyright holders and Internet providers before a final decision is made. That’s a fair process.

However, these court-ordered blockades are only the tip of the iceberg. Much more common are private blocking efforts where local WiFi providers use broad blocklists to shield people from visiting dangerous sites, including the one you’re on now.

This problem is not new but the lack of improvement has become increasingly frustrating.

Earlier this month a reader informed us that he was unable to read our news while staying at a Premier Inn in Croydon. Apparently, the hotel’s Virgin WiFi network banned us for our “Criminal Skills/Hacking, News.”

Hackers

This is no temporary or local mistake. In recent months we’ve received several reports of similar Virgin WiFi blockades, including from our colleagues at ISPreview. They ran into the same TorrentFreak blockade while conducting a study of WiFi performance in UK hotels.

And it’s not just Virgin that’s doing the blocking here.

This week another reader alerted us that he was unable to access TorrentFreak on a GovWifi connection. This network is used by many government institutions and managed by the Government Digital Service.

Apparently, they, or their blocklist provider, has classified our news site in the “Piracy and Copyright infringement” category, and accessing it would be a violation of the acceptable use policy.

No access

These two recent examples are related to the UK, but these broad blocklists are used elsewhere too. We’ve seen our site blocked in US libraries and airports, Norwegian trains, and even in a Canadian McDonalds.

We have reached out to both Virgin and the Government Digital Service for a comment on the most recent examples. At the time of publication, we have yet to hear back. Perhaps our email is blocked too?

We hope they can eventually shed some light on their motivations. In the meantime, let’s hope our readers have learned enough from our “hacking skills” to know how to bypass these blocks….

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