Amazon has announced a new global initiative to block piracy apps on its Fire TV devices. Starting this Friday, applications that enable illegal streaming of copyrighted material will be automatically disabled based on a blacklist managed by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), an international coalition of media companies including Apple TV+, BBC Studios, Canal+, Comcast, Fox, HBO, Hulu, Netflix, Paramount Global, Sony Pictures, and The Walt Disney Company — alongside Amazon itself, reports The WP Times with reference to Heise.de.
According to Amazon, the company will regularly compare installed Fire TV apps against the ACE blacklist to detect unauthorized services. Any app found to provide illegal access to protected media content will be deactivated. This applies not only to apps available via the Amazon Appstore but also to those installed through sideloading — a common method of manually loading apps from outside official channels.
Amazon explained that the goal of this action is to “support creators and protect customers,” emphasizing that piracy can expose users to malware, viruses, and fraud. The company has been cooperating with ACE for years, but this marks the first large-scale technical enforcement against piracy apps.
Two-step process before deactivation
Amazon’s new system will not immediately block applications identified as illegal. Instead, users will receive a notification informing them that certain apps violate content laws and should not be used. After a grace period — the length of which Amazon has not specified — these apps will be automatically disabled.
This two-stage process is designed to educate consumers and provide time to remove illegal apps voluntarily. A spokesperson confirmed that the sideloading option itself will not be removed from Fire TV devices, as it remains a legitimate development tool. However, the new measures will strictly target apps proven to distribute or facilitate piracy.
Sideloading remains for developers
Fire TV devices running Amazon’s new operating system, Vega OS, will continue to allow sideloading. The company clarified that, contrary to circulating rumors, it does not plan to replace the current Fire OS on existing devices with Vega OS. The sideloading capability will remain available primarily for developers and testers working on app development within legal boundaries.
Investigations by c’t magazine revealed that some Fire TV boxes offered online already come pre-installed with piracy apps that promise free access to IPTV or VoD content. In several instances, such apps were found to redistribute received streams via BitTorrent without users’ knowledge, leading to potential legal risks and warning letters from film studios.
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