Modified Fire Stick users issued stark warning over illegal streaming as anti-piracy chief says ‘we want them to pay’

HOUSEHOLDS using modified Fire Sticks to stream premium content for free may receive warning letters, an anti-piracy chief has told The Sun.

It follows the biggest illegal streaming bust by police and IP protection organisation FACT to date.

FACT CEO, Kevin Sharp, explained that his organisation is ramping up efforts to tackle illegal streaming in a bid to convert crooks into customers.

Asked whether individuals can begin to expect written warnings and police visits, alongside distributors of illegal gadgets, he said: "Yeah, so we've done this before.

"We had a large distributor of illegal content who was arrested and went to prison 18 months or so back and what we did there was we looked at the customer base and then sent notices to all of the customers."

Sharp urged that the focus is making illegal streamers aware of what other crime they might be funding in buying 'jailbroken' gadgets.

Only the worst offenders, such as the large-scale distributors, will face prison time.

"Our desire is not to prosecute everybody or arrest everybody," he added.

"It's more about getting them to understand the consequences of paying for illegal schemes... they're probably film fans and sports fans and we want them to pay.

“Some of this has organised crime behind it, not all of it, but some of it does... which is why when we prosecute people they get such long prison sentences as you can see from previous cases we've sent to court."

A 42-year-old man in Nottingham, a 51-year-old man from Widnes and a 52-year-old man in Stockton on Tees were arrested this month as part of an investigation into illegal streaming operations.

The 51-year-old was also held on the possession of Class A drugs.

All three men have since been released while investigations continue.

FACT gets information from Crime Stoppers, a charity where the public can report crimes anonymously.

Sharp, a former City of London Police detective, revealed that people often report folks they know are streaming content illegally.

Be it a nosy neighbour or concerned family member.

When illegal streaming arrests make the headlines, even more reports start pouring in to Crime Stoppers, Sharp explained.

"You'll often find it's people who are aggrieved that they’re paying for the legal content and somebody else isn’t," he added.

FACT also trawls social media to hunt down distributers, and their customers, plus it uses "creative software" to detect law-breakers.

While the organisation's partners, like Sky, Premier League, TNT Sports, Virgin Media, all have their own methods of sniffing out content poachers.

However, Sharp - who headed the economic crime team at Interpol - remained tight-lipped as to his agency's other methods of detecting illegal streamers.

Or even what the so-called "creative software" does or looks for.

"Our investigators now are highly skilled in examining what goes on online and where to look for certain things," he said.

"There's quite a lot of things we do, which I don't really want to tell the public... for obvious reasons.

"I don't want to give away any secrets."

What is a 'jailbroken' Fire Stick?

When an Amazon Fire Stick is ‘jailbroken’, it means a third-party media server software has been installed on it.

It's not just Fire Sticks that can be modified to stream content for free.

The software most commonly used on Fire Sticks 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.

The government outlined in 2017 that adapted Amazon Fire sticks and so-called ‘Kodi’ TV boxes were illegal.

This is because they breach intellectual property laws in not paying for the media content being watched.

“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.”

If users are watching content that would usually be free, however, then they would not be breaking any laws.