A SIGNIFICANT STEP IN THE FIGHT AGAINST PIRACY. AMAZON BLOCKS STREAMING APPS THAT ALLOW PIRATE VIEWING OF PAID CHANNELS

Amazon has announced a major action to combat piracy. Its Fire TV media box, which until now has allowed illegal IPTV streams to be played through various third-party apps, will gradually start blocking those apps. Amazon has not even allowed the installation of similar apps through its official app store until now. However, it was possible to install apps on the device outside of this environment, and so far they have worked normally in this environment.

Amazon has stressed that it does not intend to make it completely impossible to install independent apps, but will block any apps that allow the viewing of illegal streams at the operating system level.

Amazon has gradually started blocking in the UK and German markets, and is expected to extend this measure to the US and other countries in the near future. The next steps in the UK were reported a few days ago by The Sun, which was confirmed directly by Amazon representatives.

"Piracy is illegal and we have always tried to prevent it from spreading in our app store. Through an expanded program led by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), a global coalition fighting digital piracy, we will now block apps that have been found to provide access to pirated content, including those downloaded outside our app store. This action builds on our ongoing efforts to support creators and protect customers, as piracy can put users at risk of malware, viruses and fraud,"

the company said in a statement to a UK newspaper.

This is the first time Amazon has taken the approach of blocking certain apps on its multimedia device.

Legitimate streaming apps such as Netflix, Disney , Amazon Prime Video, DAZN and others will understandably not be affected by this decision. According to media reports, Amazon will apparently maintain a list of problematic apps that allow unauthorized access to copyrighted content, and then refuse to install or run those apps on the Fire TV device.

Furthermore, this blocking method will ensure that users cannot access illegal content even through a VPN, as the app that allows the illegal stream to be played will itself be blocked.

Source: tvkompas.cz