Is It Ok To Use Kodi On Firestick Registered To Me

Amazon Fire TV Sticks and more recently, Amazon Burn down Boob tube Media Players (which as of writing this article (iii/22/2017) can currently be purchased for $18/calendar month) have been sold for years, and can be modified to permit the installation and employ of the Kodi application. As many tech savvy guys and gals know, Kodi (formerly XMBC) can be used to add pirated content to be downloaded or streamed using the Kodi app.

Dangers of putting Kodi on an Amazon Fire TV Device

DANGERS OF USING KODI ON A MEDIA DEVICE

The problem with using Kodi on an Amazon Fire Television receiver (or any media device, for that thing) is twofold.

Y'all are using a tracked device that you likely registered to your Amazon.com business relationship.
Kodi when installed on the Amazon Fire Stick uses the wireless connection provided to it, exposing the user to copyright infringement lawsuits.

YOUR AMAZON FIRE TV STICK IS TRACKED By AMAZON.COM

This is a no-brainer. To activate the Burn Stick, y'all need to register it with your Amazon.com username and password. Amazon knows this device belongs to you, and in a number of cases, it even comes pre-programmed to your Amazon account, so why would you lot use it to view copyrighted software without a license?

All that would need to happen to sue an Amazon Fire Stick user is for a copyright holder to file a copyright infringement lawsuit confronting a John Doe, and and then take the court authorize expedited discovery to allow the copyright holder to send a subpoena to Amazon.com asking it to disclose the identity of the owner of the Amazon Burn down Stick. Amazon would happily comply merely to stop you from using their device to pirate or stream copyrighted content without a license.

Of course, there are ways to factory reset the device or deregister it from your account, but that is outside the scope of this article.

KODI, WHEN INSTALLED ON YOUR AMAZON FIRE TV DEVICE, USES YOUR WIRELESS Connection TO Call up THE PIRATED CONTENT

When you set up your Amazon Fire TV Stick, you enter your wireless username and countersign. That way, your Amazon Burn down Stick can connect to the internet automatically every bit soon as you lot plug information technology in.

The problem is that any apps yous use (here, Kodi), Likewise USES THAT SAME WIRELESS Connexion. This connection has your existent IP address exposed and shared with the internet.

It doesn't accept a genius to realize that they can file a copyright infringement lawsuit confronting the website providing the content, and force it to manus over the web site logs or analytics for a particular folio hosting the copyrighted movie you lot connected to with your exposed IP address when y'all used your Kodi-enabled Amazon Fire Sitck to view or download that copyrighted motion picture. And once they have your exposed IP address, they now take Two WAYS to sue you in a copyright infringement lawsuit:

Subpoena the Isp who owns that exposed IP address and have them expose the identity of the business relationship holder (the typical fashion a "John Doe" lawsuit is filed), or
Subpoena Amazon.com to take them betrayal the account data of the client who purchased that particular Amazon Fire Stick.

NO, Technology DOES NOT Nevertheless Arrive EASY TO SUE USERS VIEWING ILLEGALLY STREAMED CONTENT

Technology in its electric current state does non make information technology like shooting fish in a barrel or user-friendly for a copyright holder to go through the hassle of suing Icefilms, Putlocker, or any of the MANY providers of copyright-infringing content. Many of these providers are out of the U.Southward., and equally such, it is difficult (non impossible) to become them to comply with a U.s.-based court order signed by a United states of america federal judge.

Also, it is difficult to decide whether these sites even go along analytics or website logs to determine which IP addresses visit any of the pages on their websites. Every bit soon as users start getting sued, no uncertainty these companies volition shut off all website logging and analytics, thwarting any copyright holder's attempts to identify the IP address of the Kodi / Amazon Fire Stick user.

Lastly, it is an uphill boxing for a copyright holder to fight a website provider to turn over the website logs exposing who is visiting their websites. This is why y'all exercise not see ANY copyright infringement lawsuits suing John Doe Defendants for the unlawful STREAMING of copyrighted content from software sources such every bit XBMC or KODI.

For this reason, at the time I am writing this article, I cannot see how a user would realistically be sued for using Kodi on an Amazon Fire Stick. All the same, as engineering science advances and tracking methods improve to the point where a copyright holder will exist able to identify the IP address accessing a website containing copyrighted materials, the threat of being sued for streaming content will increase.

Click here for more details on the topic of "Can I be defenseless and sued for copyright infringement for streaming movies."

A QUICK NOTE Well-nigh POPCORN TIME : Popcorn Fourth dimension is a slice of software that uses BITTORRENT to larn the movie title in order to serve information technology for free to their cease user. Bittorrent lawsuits account for nearly, if not all of the copyright infringement lawsuits, and thus Popcorn Fourth dimension (even though it streams movies) is not included under the category of "hard to grab users for infringement."

Mutual SENSE. DON'T Utilize KODI ON A Burn down Television STICK.

Even though I just told you that you will probable NOT exist sued for using your Kodi-enabled Amazon Fire Goggle box Stick to view pirated content, I nonetheless caution strongly confronting using it without some additional steps.

Why would you use a device that is registered to your name? Do you think that Amazon.com is your friend and would protect yous if they realized y'all were using their device to pirate movies and music?

And, why would yous use a device that could expose your IP address to the world? Your connection to the internet would create a trackable line between your internet business relationship and the server hosting the pirated content. Practice you actually recollect that your ISP isn't snooping on y'all to see whether you lot are using their bandwidth for legal or illegal purposes? If somehow copyright holders figure out how to get the list of IP addresses who downloaded or streamed a detail movie, do you lot really want to risk being sued for $150,000 for copyright infringement?

Common sense. Even if you will likely non be tracked or caught, DO NOT use devices which connect to the internet without using an encrypted connection. Your Kodi-enabled Amazon Fire Idiot box Stick is one such device.

WAYS AROUND THE IP ADDRESS EXPOSURE Problem (USING A VPN)

Manifestly this article is meant to alert users as to the dangers of using a Kodi-enabled Amazon Fire TV devices. It is not to teach you how to intermission the police force and enable Kodi on your device. (I cannot believe Amazon is actually selling this ebook).

For mutual sense purposes, if yous are going to do anything that exposes your IP address to the public, utilize a VPN. A VPN is a Virtual Private Network which allows an individual to obscure his real IP accost by connecting to the content desired past fashion of i or more than servers. I will not become into how they piece of work here, but for reputable VPN companies who do not keep logs on your activities, TorrentFreak writes a report every so often, and that report is a proficient resource.

VPNs that proceed your identity and your IP accost individual are PAID VPNs . Free VPNs have been known to turn over their user'due south account information (as have various paid VPNs as well, which is why I suggested TorrentFreak's list).

If you lot were willing to learn how to program your router to route your internet connection through your VPN (most VPN providers teach their customers how to practice this), so using your Kodi-enabled Amazon Fire Idiot box device would be safe, and a user who uses this method would non demand to worry or fear about being sued for connecting to the internet using the Burn Stick .

Of course, keep in heed that it is yet a dumb thought to register that aforementioned Amazon Fire Television receiver Stick with your real Amazon.com account information . There might come up a time where technology advances to the point where Amazon commencement 'not liking' their users using their Fire Stick for piracy purposes. Thus, if you were to deregister the Fire Stick, or to purchase information technology without connecting information technology to your business relationship (e.g., checking 'buy it for someone else') when yous bank check out, that will stop Amazon.com from preprogramming the Fire Stick with your business relationship data. But nevertheless, you should all the same be cautious using an Amazon Fire Stick with Kodi (even with a VPN) considering Amazon themselves might devise a way to rails their own devices (if they accept not washed so already).

IN SUMMARY

In summary, Amazon Fire Telly Sticks and meliorate yet, Amazon Fire Idiot box Media Players are wonderful pieces of applied science. I own one, and current Amazon Burn TV Sticks even have Alexa built into them (a cool feature). With an Amazon Prime Subscription (we replaced our Netflix subscription with this to get the free shipping and other benefits), you tin can view literally THOUSANDS of videos from the Fire Television receiver Stick or Media Player.

The Fire Tv Stick itself is HDMI enabled, which ways that information technology can plug into any old monitor, and that monitor will become an Amazon movie studio. We tin can even connect our Bluetooth speakers (recollect, Amazon Echo or 'Alexa') to the Amazon Burn down Boob tube Stick, and nosotros have theater-quality movies and binge worthy TV shows, all bachelor to be played in our living room.

If I were a pirate, I would probably NOT put Kodi on my Amazon Fire Stick, even if I gear up my router to route all internet traffic through a paid VPN . I personally simply don't trust Amazon.com that they will not at some point become proactively 'anti-piracy', and I wouldn't want to exist the recipient of a subpoena letter indicating that I was sued for using my Fire TV Stick in an unlawful way.

All the same, if you are a regular reader of the TorrentLawyer website, you would non either. Notwithstanding, hopefully this commodity will somehow go out to people searching for "Kodi-enabled Fire Tv set Sticks," and nosotros volition at least teach them that watching Kodi this way is a bad thought.

Concluding Note, and Off Topic: I am not a Roku guy, simply because my Amazon Burn TV was given to me every bit a gift and I beloved the device. However, if I were to buy a device anew, I WOULD probably choose the Roku Premiere+ Streaming Media Role player simply because Roku is known to upgrade their devices every year, and Roku is simply a better company focused on making Roku Media Players (like logic: I would go to a Chinese Food Store to buy Chinese Food). If I was just comparison an Amazon Fire Tv set Stick (considering that it has Alexa on it) and a obviously Roku, since I take do have unlimited Amazon movies through Amazon Prime, and the Amazon Fire TV devices are supposedly faster, I'd stick with the Amazon. If I did not accept Amazon Prime number, I'd get with the Roku. Whichever device I had, however, I WOULD NOT PUT KODI ON IT.