We regret to inform all our users that we have decided to activate a feature in the Ares Wizard to detect "undesirable" addons.
Ares Team have chosen to make our views known that we do not and will not condone the direct copy and paste of addons. We support the content creators and providers; we therefore now scan for these addons and if in the unlikely event they are found you will be given options to remove them.
Ares Team have not and will never remove or interfere with other addons without consent, this is down to you the users to decide which add ons you use.
Why Are We Taking This Stance?
This isnt about code copying, as many of the addons and repos are just clones passed around in the spirit of open source. A simple email to almost any of the devs would get you permission to use anyway.
This isnt a dispute about copyright either, that would be a little trite, given all the content we all love is sourced from "big corps" in any case.
This is about the encoders, uploaders and creators of the content, that is provided to you free. Its provided free usually by people as a hobby or interest, but for some its an idealogy to bypass big corps and give "the working man" access to content he maybe couldn’t afford. This has generally been done on a "gentlemans" agreement, each "dev" providing content on the basis you didn’t touch anyone else stuff.
Why do people get so uptight about having their "pirate links" copied?
Imagine, some of these guys have been doing this for years, hundreds maybe even thousands of links and many, many man hours involved in sourcing content and uploading to hosters. For free. No trickery no danger of malicious code etc.
Now imagine someone comes along, bypasses your 1000's of hours input, with a simple cut n paste, a few twiddles and new graphics. Boom a new addon appears! Its all YOUR work!
Next are the guys that "crack" sites - yup they spend hours trawling, testing and tweaking to gain access to the live tv feeds we all love
How would you feel?
Now lets be clear, people aren’t going to die, the world wont stop turning, it wont cause countries to go to war ( i hope!). In the greater scheme of things, its hardly life threatening right? However, let me explain, I know for a fact there are several "devs" or content providers about to jack it in completely. Why should they do all the work for some muppets to copy and ask for donations?
What about people copy the popular content to get you installing their new "super addon" with 4 or 5 addons in one, then once established started adding new code? Code that can be used to launch ddos attacks or monitor your network activity/traffic? Its actually very easy to do.
Easily Add "malicious code"
I was approached by an industry "security" expert, a guy who looks at exploits and weaknesses in systems (even gave me some advice on a few things I'd missed !) - Mr A as I'll call him
Mr A "Did you know you can add code to Genesis really easy?"
Me " Yes, its very easy to add code - bump the version and have it install"
Mr A " you can make this install on other systems?"
Me " Easily - create a repo - get people to use it for any reason you can - then add your modified addon with your code - it will auto update for you"
Mr A " Thats very bad"
Indeed he was shocked at how easy it is to add " a little extra code" to do some "other stuff". This is why we always say - only install from official repo - so you dont get dragged into this type of scam. I would hope given the scrutiny in the community this would get spotted really quickly, but its one reason I never installed "Specto" or any other "forked" addon, I just don’t have the time to trawl the code to make sure its contains no nasties.
OK, before you panic, there is no code I am aware doing anything bad (excluding giving you copyright infringing material), and that for Kodi themselves is bad. Kodi has a list of banned addons, which some have alluded means Ares Wizard is "bad" in some way - let me assure you, every single addon that provides useful content is banned by Kodi - check for yourself;
Official:Forum rules/Banned add-ons - Kodi
Ares Wizard "Virus"
************ and Kodi alluded to "nefarious activity", but neither have produced any proof (nor can they), but as I have covered, its "feasible" to easily modify code, I can demonstrate this very easily, but i have not seen anyone produce any code as actual PROOF. The Ares Wizard it was claimed contained " a virus" - I have a £500 reward for any proof it does. (I could make if £5000 tbh - the money is safe, we'd even provide the source to an independent security company to validate this.).
Anonymous have tried to spread panic by claiming that Ares Wizard has a virus - actually its some code to detect their addon - then it gives you the choice to use Ares - (uninstall Anon) or not. That was ************ direct response as to "reasonable" use of detection code. This is what vidtime and more will do I suspect.
Anon obviously want to keep the light shining on their copied stuff, so will spread rumours, lies and negative propaganda about this project. You know we have been around since November last year (2015) and have tens of millions of downloads and close to 5 million confirmed build installs, If anything bad was gonna happen, it would have surfaced now huh?
Addons Removing Other Addons
Just to be clear - adding code to remove other addons is an understandable reaction to the recent CnP artists, now I have had time to think that one through, I understand the point that it removes users rights, however strongly I personally feel, its more than 1 person or group of people, its what you want om your devices. You have to be given the right to make a choice, right or wrong, that’s your choice.
I digress a little - lets get back to Kodi and addon copying; what possible reason can anyone have for copying another addon ? There is a massive promotional machine, youtube, twitter, facebook etc to ensure users know which addons have which content. So whats to gain by simply copying add ons and sticking them in one addon? They have to be exploiting something somewhere... at some point, even if its not now, it will come.
Money, Greed, Exploitation
Thomas Bernard, a recent such offender, copied lists and addons created a new addon then tried to charge people for content - in fact he now has a wizard he wants you to pay monthly to access the builds!
Why would Anonymous (or anyone else) copy addons? The only reason has ever been money, to exploit/leverage that content, to gain donations, or to create paid content. I am not against paid subs, I use one, but they buy the servers and their streams and provide me with a service. They didn’t hijack someone else’s server (at no cost) then charge end users for those "free" streams. This I hope makes sense.
This is a bloody long post and I have still only scratched the surface of explaining things, I hope this goes someway to covering some of the reaction the devs have to addon content being copied, which can often seem bizarre and hypocritical, but the rationale is is founded in good practice, common respect and a genuine regard for the end user experience.
My Final Thoughts
If Kodi themselves wanted to disrupt the "3rd party addon" community and cause problems, panic and unrest, what better way to achieve this?
Its just another "conspiracy theory", but its thrown a real spanner in the works, with many end users genuinely confused and upset. How to get devs to quit, demoralise them, set them against each other, create drama - its a perfect storm.
It could just be a few attention seeking cretins waving two fingers at the community too!
If more devs quit then their void will be filled with people charging for content, Plex, IPTV and the like will further establish itself, so careful what you wish for.
