Amazon’s latest crackdown on illegal streaming has caused quite a stir. After more than a decade of piracy on its Fire TV Sticks, the latest measure aims to definitively put an end to the scourge of ‘unreliable Fire Sticks’.
But does Amazon really believe its new measures will work? And are your competitors worried about being the next to carry the flame of digital piracy?
“Piracy is illegal”
When we asked how confident Amazon was in its new measures, a spokesperson responded with a bold, if bland, response:
“Piracy is illegal and we have always worked to block it on our Appstore.
“Through an expanded program led by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), a global coalition fighting digital piracy, we will now block apps identified as providing access to pirated content, including those downloaded from outside our Appstore.”
Amazon did not respond when pressed for comment on how effective its new policy would be.
The comment we received is identical to that given to The Sun earlier this week, in an article that also confirmed deployment would begin throughout Europe before spreading throughout the world.
Since the implementation of the new measures began, Reddit threads have emerged confirming that several popular piracy sites are still usable on the Fire TV Stick despite the update. An anonymous source told TechRadar that they still had access to illegal content.
So the question arises: will the update achieve its goals?
Reddit users have pointed out several cases of workarounds and still-functional apps.
ACE’s Trusted Notifier program appears to be at the heart of the blocking system. It relies on ongoing relationships with advertising partners, domain registrars, and now streaming devices.
These sites are only blacklisted once ACE identifies them, but there is little that can prevent a new site from appearing in its place once the original is blocked.
The full ACE list has not been made public, although it is likely, according to reports on Reddit, that many of the biggest names in hacking do not currently appear on it.
Amazon recently launched its latest Fire TV Stick, which now runs its own Vega operating system.
The new operating system, based on Linux, rather than Android, should make downloading a more challenging option for users, although by no means impossible. The move has resulted in several security apps, primarily VPNs, rushing to create working solutions, with these being the only two that can be managed so far.
The most extensive answer
If Amazon is slowly closing the doors on pirated content, people will likely continue looking for solutions. One comment on our previous coverage summed up the sentiment perfectly: “Okay, I’ll use something else instead.”
So, is this more of a case of passing the torch to another media streamer, rather than a Fire TV Stick?
Google and Roku are two of the other biggest players in the industry. So will pirates move to these media streamers? It won’t be that simple.
When we contacted Roku, they had very little to say. Perhaps because downloading (the practice behind accessing many piracy apps) is a much more complicated process on Roku devices, meaning pirating content on a Roku device is much more difficult than on an Amazon Fire TV Stick.
Google also did not respond. The company will add a developer verification system in 2026, making it impossible to download apps created by unverified developers on Android devices. The global launch of this feature is not expected until 2027, so it remains a possible alternative for pirates until then.
While the direction the pirate streaming network will take at the moment is uncertain, it’s clear that the tide is turning. Amazon has brought out the heavy artillery, leaving pirates in potentially rocky waters.
