In our house, I’m the technology expert. Once we walk out the door, I’m basically a dummy in this area.
A few years ago, hubby came home with a MINIX box. All we knew was that an app on it called Kodi would give us access to all sorts of programming on the web. If you know where to look, everything – and I mean, literally everything – is out in the open and free to watch. Its remote was garbage so we upgraded to one that has a full QWERTY keyboard. I hated this box because although it had the ability to stream the web, it also had a lot of gaming junk we’d never use. I begged him to take it back and get a refund. He said we just needed to learn how to use it. So I figured it out and made peace with it.
We watched whatever we wanted. I felt a bit icky because I knew that, for example, movies still in theatres were streaming for free and if it wasn’t throw-you-in-jail illegal, it was certainly a grey area. Dark, smoky grey. As an example, once in a while we’d view a film with Russian subtitles, or in less than stellar quality, and make a joke about movie pirates. Ha ha ha, crime is so funny. But they were right there, not behind a paywall or even difficult to find. Why weren’t the big companies trying to shut them down?
As it turns out, they were. MINIX and similar boxes are Android devices that, on their own aren’t a big problem. As I understand it, the problem is when they’re loaded with content and apps that allow people to view paid content for free. You know, like films still in theatres or Netflix-only programs. Last year, Bell, Rogers and other big players cracked down on the sale of these pre-loaded boxes and drove some of the smaller operators out of business.
The minute I fully realized the implications of what we were doing, I set about changing our ways. After polling friends on social media, reading countless reviews and discussing the issue with a few respected local geeks I decided on a Roku box. Roku offers a lot of free, legal content such as movies and TV shows via Crackle, and it includes apps for services we already subscribe to such as Netflix. I sold the MINIX box to an avid gamer.
You will continue to see offers for fully-loaded Android boxes. Maybe not in retail flyers but on Facebook and Twitter. More and more consumers are discovering them. Eventually content will dry up and viewers will have to return to the big players to see their shows. At least, that’s what the big guys’ lawyers are aiming for.