Various areas of the UK have been targeted as part of a renewed crackdown on dodgy Fire Stick devices which allow people to illegally stream content they haven't paid for.
If anything, efforts were ramped up over the festive season as hundreds of letters were sent out to hundreds of households following the prosecution of Jonathan Edge, as details of his customers were seized by Merseyside Police.
These 'cease and desist' letters reminded people they ran the risk of 'potential criminal liability to exposure to scams, viruses, and harmful content'.
The Intellectual Property Office estimates that 6.2 million British people access illegally streamed TV, and the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) states that they could be prosecuted for criminal offences under Section 11 of the Fraud Act 2006.
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Meanwhile, some of the devices themselves have been warning users that what they're doing is illegal and offering to uninstall the apps which get loaded onto dodgy sticks as part of a two-step plan that will outright ban the apps next.
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Part of the crackdown involves going after the platforms where people can illegally access streaming content, and FACT said it would keep targeting areas where it finds evidence of dodgy streaming.
The list of places targeted by the crackdown has reportedly grown as thousands of people in Scotland's South Lanarkshire area recently lost access to illegal streams.
This comes after three illegal streaming operations were closed down in recent weeks, as some people said that their Fire Stick 'just stopped working' out of the blue.
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They said that the person who sold them the Fire Stick told them things were 'too risky' and they had to stop running their operation until they could figure out a way not to be caught in the crackdown.
Someone else who lost their streaming after buying a dodgy device said they'd tried to ask for a refund and was told that's not how it works.
Kieron Sharp, chairman of FACT, said that he wasn't surprised some networks selling the dodgy devices and running illegal streaming through them were shutting down.
He said: "Illegal streaming services are often operated by organised criminals and the combination of continued enforcement by FACT and our partners, alongside Amazon’s recent decision to tighten security and prevent the sideloading of unauthorised apps on Fire Sticks, is having a real deterrent effect."
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A crackdown in the UK targeting 30 sellers has encompassed:
- London
- Kent
- Sussex
- Norfolk
- Northamptonshire
- Lincolnshire
- Derbyshire
- Staffordshire
- East and West Midlands
- Greater Manchester
- Cheshire
- Merseyside
- Northumbria
- North Yorkshire
- South Wales
- North East and North West of England.
With the recent crackdowns in Scotland, it'd be harder to point to a spot in the UK where the crackdown wasn't going on.
The crackdown has also reportedly extended beyond the UK to target illegal streaming operations in Ireland, with legal warnings issued in Dublin, Cork, Donegal, Offaly, Limerick, Louth, Clare, Westmeath and Laois.
Joe Harker