and the distribution of digital products.
Report: Jailbroken Fire Sticks are fueling a piracy boom
A report from Enders Analysis indicates that Amazon’s Fire Stick is facilitating piracy, with 59% of individuals in the UK who viewed pirated material in the past year using the device, according to Sky. The report highlights issues of compromised DRM technologies and advertising of illegal streaming services.
Modified Fire Sticks, also known as “jailbroken” devices, allow users to install unauthorized apps for streaming content such as live sports and movies. Sky Group COO Nick Herm stated, “People think that because it’s a legitimate brand, it must be OK. So they give their credit card details to criminal gangs. Amazon is not engaging with us as much as we’d like.”
The report points to the high cost of legitimate streaming as a factor driving piracy. For example, UK soccer fans had to pay around $1,171 to watch all televised Premier League games in the 23/24 season.
According to the report, Google and Microsoft are also culpable due to the “continued deprecation” of their security systems. The report claims that “Twenty-year-old security protecting billion-dollar content is like using a screen door on a submarine.”
Facebook is also cited in the report for enabling ads for illegal streaming services. DAZN’s head of global rights, Tom Burrows, called streaming piracy “almost a crisis for the sports rights industry.”
Amazon has taken steps to make it harder to turn Fire TV devices into piracy tools. These measures include disabling ADB over local networks, tighter DRM, and adding legality warnings.
Later this year, Amazon is switching Fire TV devices from Android to its Linux-based Vega OS, which blocks device modifications that enable piracy. Using modified streaming devices carries legal and financial risks, including identity theft, credit card security breaches, and potential jail time.
There has been a crackdown on hacked Fire Sticks in the UK. Last year, someone received a two-year suspended sentence for selling the devices, and another individual was jailed.