Fire TV: Amazon to block piracy apps in the future

Anyone who has installed an app on their Fire TV device or player that allows illegal access to copyrighted content must expect to no longer be able to use it in the future. The background is that Amazon will actively take action against such piracy apps starting today, Friday.

To achieve this, the manufacturer will compare the applications installed on the devices with a blacklist maintained by the anti-piracy coalition ACE (Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment). This includes numerous media and streaming companies, including Apple TV+, BBC Studios, Canal+, Comcast, Fox, HBO, Hulu, Netflix, Paramount Global, Sony Pictures, and The Walt Disney Company, in addition to Amazon.

In response to an inquiry, Amazon explained that it has always worked to ban piracy from its app store. As part of an expanded program led by the ACE, it is now blocking apps that demonstrably provide access to pirated content, including those downloaded outside the app store. This builds on Amazon's ongoing efforts to support creators and protect customers, as piracy can also expose users to malware, viruses, and fraud.

Two-stage process

Amazon does not block the relevant apps immediately, but first notifies the user for a certain period that these are applications that should not be used. The company has not yet commented on how long users will receive the notification before the application is blocked.

In response to an inquiry, Amazon explained that it will continue to be possible to install apps via so-called sideloading from a source besides the official app store. They understand that this is a valuable tool for developers. Consequently, the new measures are intended to be limited to piracy apps.

Sideloading still possible

The sideloading option will remain available on Fire TV devices running Amazon's new operating system, Vega OS. However, it is generally limited to developers here. In this context, the company emphasized that, contrary to rumors, there are no plans to upgrade existing Fire TV devices with Fire OS as the operating system to Vega OS.

Fire TV players are repeatedly offered on the internet with piracy apps that are supposed to enable free access to IPTV or VoD content. During c't's research on main topic streaming and piracy, it turned out that in several cases apps were pre-installed that, without the user's knowledge, redistributed received content via Bittorrent, with the result that users might unexpectedly receive warning letters from the film industry. (nij)