Kodi is considering DRM support to offer more legal content

The team behind the popular media player software Kodi has announced that it is considering working with copyright holders. They could then serve their DRM-protected content via official add-ons.

The Kodi team tells TorrentFreak that contact is often sought by copyright holders. Some parties understand that Kodi is only media-playing software and that it does not itself make third-party add-ons, which in some cases allow copyrighted movies and series to be watched for free. Other parties, on the other hand, ask the team to block those add-ons.

Martijn Kaijser, one of the Kodi developers, states that it is not desirable to remove code or block add-ons, because it is easy to change the add-on and offer it again. In order to do something against pirates, the team behind the media player wants to accommodate more legal providers on its platform. Therefore, it would currently consider introducing DRM protection. This concerns ‘low level DRM’.

According to Kaijser, this is necessary to give copyright holders the confidence that they can offer their content securely via Kodi. In the past, Kodi would have struggled to convince parties to come up with official add-ons. There are currently a number of legal add-ons, including Plex and Twitch. However, a large party like Netflix is ​​missing. Taking action against copyright infringement would make it easier to convince the parties.

Last year, the Kodi team announced it was taking steps against companies that sell Kodi-enabled media players and suggested that recent movies and series can be watched for free. On this, the team says it’s not the approach it wants to take and prefers more legal content.