AMAZON is making another change that will make it harder for people who illegally stream football matches and other premium content.
The tech giant recently revealed a brand new Fire Stick model with some huge upgrades.
Amazon’s biggest shake-up is to the system, meaning illegal streaming apps will no longer work.
But there’s another snag with the new Fire TV Stick 4K Select model.
You won’t be able to download VPNs, at least not for now.
VPNs are popular among illegal streamers to hide their true location.
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But at launch this week, the VPNs won’t be available to this specific version.
“At initial retail availability, the new Fire TV 4K Select running Vega OS won’t support VPN apps, so NordVPN won’t be available in the App Store on day one,” a spokesperson told CordBusters.
“Amazon plans to enable VPN protocols via a software update in late October.
“Our app is ready, and we’ll make it available in the Amazon Appstore for the new Fire TV devices as soon as that update goes live.”
But even when VPN support does arrive, the new system running the Fire TV 4K Select won’t allow illegal streaming apps anyway.
Instead of running on the open Android operating system, it relies on a new in-house alternative called Vega.
By design Vega can’t run sideloaded apps – the technique used by illegal streaming operators to load Fire Sticks with dodgy apps.
This means the apps that were built based on Android simply won’t work on the new Fire Sticks.
And they won’t be able to build new ones that work on Vega either.
The move comes as after Amazon has faced pressure to restrict how its popular TV gadget functions, with so-called “dodgy” modified Fire Sticks a common favourite for illegally watching premium football and movies on the cheap.
Bosses from UK broadcasting giant Sky have even pointed the finger at Amazon by suggesting the firm doesn’t do enough to prevent piracy.
“There are football fans who literally have shirts printed with ‘dodgy boxes and fire sticks’ on them,” Nick Herm, chief operating officer at Sky said earlier this year.
Warning over ‘jailbroken’ Fire Sticks
Illegal streaming can be delivered by a number of devices by one of the most common are ‘jailbroken’ Fire Sticks, which means a third-party media server software has been installed on to it.
The software most commonly used is called Kodi.
It can grant users unrestricted access to new features and apps the normal version of the device wouldn’t allow – but it is not legal to use in the UK.
But it becomes illegal when a box is used to stream subscription channels for free.
It is also illegal to buy or sell these modified devices which have become known as “fully-loaded” – a term that describes how the software has been altered to allow access to subscription-only channels.
“These devices are legal when used to watch legitimate, free to air, content,” the government said at the time.
“They become illegal once they are adapted to stream illicit content, for example TV programmes, films and subscription sports channels without paying the appropriate subscriptions.”
