IF you are a lover of film and television a Kodi box sounds like a dream buy.

Kodi, which started life as an open-source media centre project for the X-Box games console, can be configured to access a world of TV series and movies.

It's important to note that Kodi itself is perfectly legitimate. Used properly, it can become a home media hub for watching material stored on a network drive or a computer on a big screen television.

But so-called 'fully loaded' Android TV boxes promise something different.

Kodi's best feature - it extensibility - is also its Achilles' Heel.

Developers can create plug-ins - easily installable apps - which access a world of pirated television and films.

In the recent past anyone wanting to access pirated content had to do so using peer-to-peer technology - downloading and sharing content with other users. This is illegal. It is also dangerous because pirate sites are stuffed with malware masquerading as your favourite TV show.

What makes a Kodi build so attractive is that the unofficial add-ons do all the hard work - they search upload sites, find the right files, sift out the dubious-looking material and present the rest in an easy to navigate user interface that looks like Netflix on steroids.

The people who develop these plug-ins for Kodi claim it is not illegal to watch a stream.

Fact - the Federation Against Copyright Theft - says that any site making copyright material available without the rights owner's permission is unlawful.

So why has no one been prosecuted for watching something like Game of Thrones (the most pirated TV show in the world according to a study earlier this year)?

Up to now, Fact has adopted a policy of not prosecuting people watching the streams, preferring to go after the people uploading files and the websites hosting them.

A straightforward Android TV box - with a plain version of Kodi - would not fall foul of trading standards because it can be used to access subscription services like Netflix, Now TV or Amazon Prime.

A device is sold with a so-called fully loaded version of Kodi is in a legal grey area. Middlesbrough Council believes this device is illegal, resellers say they are not breaking the law - soon it will be up to the courts to decide who is right.

Android TV boxes are not the first home streaming devices to be modified for Kodi, Apple and Amazon products have been hacked before, but a flood of ridiculously cheap Chinese Android boxes has made them the tool of choice for anyone wanting to watch streaming TV.

But anyone who thinks these cheap boxes are as straightforward to use as a Roku box or an Amazon Fire stick will be disappointed. The reality is that an Android TV box running Kodi can be a right pain if you're not a nerd.

Even plain vanilla Kodi requires a diet of constant updates and setting it up to access a network drive or PC can be a real headache. Kodi is for computer hobbyists who love to tinker - it is not plug-and-play software.

The links to dubious content on a tweaked build of Kodi will break regularly and many sites are already blocked by UK ISPs on the orders of the courts.

When that happens non-techie users who just want to watch Game of Thrones will be left with a blank screen or a cryptic message about missing files.

Earlier this year the development community behind Kodi hit out at rise of fully-loaded boxes.

In an open letter posted online they said: "Team Kodi maintains an officially neutral stance on what users do with their own software. Kodi is open source software, and as long as the GPL is followed, you are welcome to do with it as you like. So while we don’t love this use of Kodi, as long as you know what illegal and potentially dangerous things you are getting yourself into and accept the fact that the Team will not be providing you with any support, then you are welcome to do what you like.

"We love making Kodi. We love working on a free, open source software that’s the best media center on the planet, able to do things no other media center can do. And we want to keep making Kodi better, every single day. But every day our name gets dragged through the mud, we are in danger of losing developers and losing the freedom to make Kodi great."