Pay for your internet access. Then pay for a dozen subscriptions. Then don’t forget your telly license too.
Remind me how this shit isn’t extortion.
A Swedish mole or a charged particle will solve a good majority of these issues; IYKYK
Direct-Mongoose-7981 on
Someone tries to break into my house… “nothing we can do”
Use dodgy fire stick “That’s 12 months in prison”
Next time someone tries to break into my house I’m going to say that they had dodgy fire sticks in their pockets as well.
JarJarBingChilling on
What a waste of time and police resources. They care more about corporations’ bottom line than actual serious crimes. Mugs.
Nuthetes on
Glad the police are keeping the streets safe by protecting the billionaire’s profit margins
Redditisfakeleft on
In other news: Amazon reports sales of new Fire Stick model “disappointing”.
ElCaminoInTheWest on
The cops are absolutely going after the makers and distributors of these devices, rather than users. There are millions of users and it’s very unclear how they’d even begin to go tracking them down.
Express-Hawk-3885 on
Streaming has gotten so bad an fragmented that people are even going back to physical media. The streaming companies have fucked themselves over being greedy or launching their own service
officialullock on
Same headline comes out every few weeks, they don’t give a shit about catching people using them, it’s the sellers they want. Just scare tactics that boomers see on Facebook and believe it.
KebabAnnhilator on
During 2024, Jonathan Edge, aged 29 at the time, from Anfield Road in Liverpool, was handed a 40-month custodial sentence for distributing Firestick devices that allowed customers to unlawfully access Premier League football fixtures. Meanwhile in 2025, Sunny Kanda, then 40, from Creek View in Halifax, received a two-year jail term relating to “supplying and distributing TV fire sticks and concealing bank transfers linked to criminal activity”.
As usual nobody reads the article.
This is related to selling and distribution.
Nobody has received jail time in the UK for using one, and nobody will.
Although they are kind of shit anyway. Set up your own personal server.
fsfaith on
“This is a crime that diverts funds away from the entertainment industries, money that supports thousands of technical and support staff.” Sure sure. Which is why pay for those people have been largely stagnant but the paychecks for the top players are getting fatter and fatter. Cut the bullshit.
SuomiBob on
Some fuckstick broke into my car back in October. Middle of the day, parked outside my house. Brazen as you like. Managed to somehow get in and steal sunglasses and the like but fortunately couldn’t steal the car itself.
Called the police, nothing they could do. They wanted ME to contact all the neighbours and collect any available ring doorbell footage etc and send it to them.
So fuck them! If fire stick raids are more important than theft and burglary etc something has gone very wrong.
Captainatom931 on
If you read the article you’ll see that no users have actually been investigated, arrested, or fined. It’s distributors that have been target.
Absolutely appalling headline.
JackStrawWitchita on
Just a lesson for all: there’s no need to use a firestick dodgy or otherwise. A few internet links gives you everything you need for free. No middle man or technical set up or payment required. Those dodgy firestick people were selling you something that they got for free that is literally one click away.
BuffaloPancakes11 on
Absolutely zero chance they have the time, resource or personnel to go to the homes of the average person just using these devices
The major suppliers maybe, but these stories have been coming out every 6 months for years now
Also they love to drive the “you’re funding major criminals and nefarious activities” narrative when the few people I know who have distributed streaming apps before are just a few tech savvy nerds from work
circleribbey on
>Jonathan Edge, aged 29 at the time, from Anfield Road in Liverpool, was handed a 40-month custodial sentence for distributing Firestick devices
Fun fact, the average sentence given for sexual assault in the UK is 36-48 months. The average for GBH is 24-36. Across violent crimes as a whole it’s about 20–22.
Interesting that the courts consider dodgy fire sticks as much more serious than violent crime, and about a serious sexual assault
Flipmode45 on
“Individuals caught illegally streaming face penalties reaching thousands of pounds, alongside the possibility of imprisonment for up to 12 months.”
Utter bollocks. No individuals are getting fined or being put in prison for streaming. Copyright infringement is a civil matter in the UK.
People that sell devices enabled to access pirated content are being targeted, not individuals who bought a dodgy Fire stick from a bloke down the pub.
Spamgrenade on
Users of firesticks do not freak out. There is no way the police will come for you. They will need a warrant to come knock on the door, which means they need to prove to a judge that they have reasonable suspicion or whatever.
That’s pretty hard to do unless they are sneaking around houses looking in windows when the big match is on. And even then they have no real way of knowing if its a legit sub or not.
Sure they will probably make an example of a few people, but these will most likely be people “known to the police” and they will notice the firestick while on an unrelated visit.
Krillzilla on
Well police officers buy them, so they know who sells them.
martinhsa on
Ironically, I work with a few former coppers and one of them said in their last job they had a guy who sorted them and their colleague Fire Sticks out at work.
giblets46 on
The irony being that sky bet has moved half of its business to Malta to avoid paying tax in the UK.
That’s insane. It just shows how the big corporations have the MPs and lawmakers in their pockets, when those sort of punishments can apply to, this, while people committing serious offences, against ordinary people, are let off with barely a slap on the wrist. That is if the offense even gets investigated!
buntypieface on
So amazon don’t pay tax but we get done for not paying amazon. Hah!
The world is truly on its head.
RabidFlamingo on
“Give them bread and circuses, and you can get away with anything”
“Okay but listen, some of them were sneaking into the circus using dodgy sticks, so we put them in prison for that”
BlueLidMilk on
Good to know my wife’s ex-friend can stalk and intimidate her for 3 years and the police say there’s nothing they can do about it. But if I told them the same person had a dodgy fire stick they would look into it.
Agfa72 on
Clickbait title. It’s people distributing them, not using them.
Dil26 on
Classic scaremongering headline and article. They only ever go after distributors and resellers.
The most any user has ever gotten is a warning letter. No individual in the UK has ever been charged and arrested for only watching illegal streams.
kiwington on
Clickbait ASF, title applies to distributors. No way a single user of a firestick will have their fucking house raided
More bullshit paid for by the government to scaremonger, whilst the real issues are ignored as usual
Loud-Landscape-9178 on
Good luck getting £50k off them, why do they think they’re using dodgy fire sticks in the first place
SkydivingCats on
Maybe if the providers didn’t continually jack the prices and stuff more ads in then people wouldn’t do this.
I mean, some people would, but most honest people dont mind paying a fair price for a service, but it’s getting really bad. The only reason I have any streaming services is because one of my credit card gives me a refund on them and I get a lot of discounts for working in my industry
g_junkin4200 on
There isn’t a single reported case of an IPTV user being prosecuted in the UK. Of 5 million users only approx 1000 have been contacted with cease and desist letters.
The target is the distributers because there are fewer targets but along side that the best the broadcasters can do are these various transparent PR stories (that take liberties with the facts) via regional online news outlets to discourage and scare people away from IPTV services.
Until the broadcasters make their services more affordable in this dire economy, people will continue to use these cheap services which often offer much more than sky or virgin can offer. For instance, 3pm KO. And since end users are too expensive to find and prosecute, they can continue to use these services without fear.
Sin_nombre__ on
In lots of these stories it’s people providing the service that gets fined, but they make it seem like those accessing the services are getting fined too.
SonicBytes on
Why not tackle the reasons as to why IPTV is so popular? The cost for watching football is incredibly high and not every game is available to watch legally. IPTV is often cheaper per year than it is to watch some games legally for a single month.
Wanna stop IPTV? Put price caps that are reasonable for the average person. Ensure that all games are available to watch, I don’t care if there’s no commentary for some games. Ensure that packages are suited to how viewers watch TV. I just watch one team (generally) and you’re talking almost £20 per game if you’re in the premier league and not in European competitions. I’d happily pay £20 a month for a dedicated stream of my team’s games.
Using footy here as an example, but I’m sure it extends to other sports and other categories too.
No-Maintenance-4509 on
Harsher punishment for illegally streaming the football than arriving in the UK illegally and sexually assaulting someone.
Bonkers country
hammy_694 on
What you in prison for mate? Oh I killed 3 people, you? Oh I was using a firestick…
HassananeBalal on
A friendly and timely reminder that the police operate as a force strictly to protect the interests of the rich and wealthy
Gc1981 on
My old neighbour was broken into about 5 years ago. An elderly, obese lady who hadn’t left her house or even been upstairs in years. She called them and said she had just watched him take a ladder from next doors garden, prop it up against her house and climb in through an upstairs window. She could now hear him rummaging about updtairs. Her grand daughter lived there but was out. Nobody came out till 2 days later. Even then only after repeated phone calls from the grand daughter as she hadn’t touched anything to preserve evidence. They didn’t even look upstairs. Just said there was no realistic chance of catching them.
They have time for firesticks though.
Adamdel34 on
The fact of the matter is that IPTV offer a better service than things like Netflix, Amazon prime, Sky Sports, BT sports etc.
Companies like Spotify and Steam understood this and made a service where you can get basically everytbing thr consumer wants at a reasonable price and as a result the amount of piracy in music and video games industry dropped off a cliff.
No one wants 3/4 different sports subscriptions costing £100 quid a month to watch the Premier league when other counties can do the same thing for a tenner. Same applies for things like films and TV shows.
The best way to reduce crime is to prevent the circumstances that cause it to happen in the first place, the government could try and offer better consumer protection if they want to reduce piracy.
But they won’t, theyll continue to fine/lock up bricklayers who wanted to watch King Kong or burnley vs Sunderland and the problem will get worse year on year until someone actually decides to fix the issue.
Complete and utter waste of resources which takes funding away from addressing real issues.
38 Comments
Pay for your internet access. Then pay for a dozen subscriptions. Then don’t forget your telly license too.
Remind me how this shit isn’t extortion.
A Swedish mole or a charged particle will solve a good majority of these issues; IYKYK
Someone tries to break into my house… “nothing we can do”
Use dodgy fire stick “That’s 12 months in prison”
Next time someone tries to break into my house I’m going to say that they had dodgy fire sticks in their pockets as well.
What a waste of time and police resources. They care more about corporations’ bottom line than actual serious crimes. Mugs.
Glad the police are keeping the streets safe by protecting the billionaire’s profit margins
In other news: Amazon reports sales of new Fire Stick model “disappointing”.
The cops are absolutely going after the makers and distributors of these devices, rather than users. There are millions of users and it’s very unclear how they’d even begin to go tracking them down.
Streaming has gotten so bad an fragmented that people are even going back to physical media. The streaming companies have fucked themselves over being greedy or launching their own service
Same headline comes out every few weeks, they don’t give a shit about catching people using them, it’s the sellers they want. Just scare tactics that boomers see on Facebook and believe it.
During 2024, Jonathan Edge, aged 29 at the time, from Anfield Road in Liverpool, was handed a 40-month custodial sentence for distributing Firestick devices that allowed customers to unlawfully access Premier League football fixtures. Meanwhile in 2025, Sunny Kanda, then 40, from Creek View in Halifax, received a two-year jail term relating to “supplying and distributing TV fire sticks and concealing bank transfers linked to criminal activity”.
As usual nobody reads the article.
This is related to selling and distribution.
Nobody has received jail time in the UK for using one, and nobody will.
Although they are kind of shit anyway. Set up your own personal server.
“This is a crime that diverts funds away from the entertainment industries, money that supports thousands of technical and support staff.” Sure sure. Which is why pay for those people have been largely stagnant but the paychecks for the top players are getting fatter and fatter. Cut the bullshit.
Some fuckstick broke into my car back in October. Middle of the day, parked outside my house. Brazen as you like. Managed to somehow get in and steal sunglasses and the like but fortunately couldn’t steal the car itself.
Called the police, nothing they could do. They wanted ME to contact all the neighbours and collect any available ring doorbell footage etc and send it to them.
So fuck them! If fire stick raids are more important than theft and burglary etc something has gone very wrong.
If you read the article you’ll see that no users have actually been investigated, arrested, or fined. It’s distributors that have been target.
Absolutely appalling headline.
Just a lesson for all: there’s no need to use a firestick dodgy or otherwise. A few internet links gives you everything you need for free. No middle man or technical set up or payment required. Those dodgy firestick people were selling you something that they got for free that is literally one click away.
Absolutely zero chance they have the time, resource or personnel to go to the homes of the average person just using these devices
The major suppliers maybe, but these stories have been coming out every 6 months for years now
Also they love to drive the “you’re funding major criminals and nefarious activities” narrative when the few people I know who have distributed streaming apps before are just a few tech savvy nerds from work
>Jonathan Edge, aged 29 at the time, from Anfield Road in Liverpool, was handed a 40-month custodial sentence for distributing Firestick devices
Fun fact, the average sentence given for sexual assault in the UK is 36-48 months. The average for GBH is 24-36. Across violent crimes as a whole it’s about 20–22.
Interesting that the courts consider dodgy fire sticks as much more serious than violent crime, and about a serious sexual assault
“Individuals caught illegally streaming face penalties reaching thousands of pounds, alongside the possibility of imprisonment for up to 12 months.”
Utter bollocks. No individuals are getting fined or being put in prison for streaming. Copyright infringement is a civil matter in the UK.
People that sell devices enabled to access pirated content are being targeted, not individuals who bought a dodgy Fire stick from a bloke down the pub.
Users of firesticks do not freak out. There is no way the police will come for you. They will need a warrant to come knock on the door, which means they need to prove to a judge that they have reasonable suspicion or whatever.
That’s pretty hard to do unless they are sneaking around houses looking in windows when the big match is on. And even then they have no real way of knowing if its a legit sub or not.
Sure they will probably make an example of a few people, but these will most likely be people “known to the police” and they will notice the firestick while on an unrelated visit.
Well police officers buy them, so they know who sells them.
Ironically, I work with a few former coppers and one of them said in their last job they had a guy who sorted them and their colleague Fire Sticks out at work.
The irony being that sky bet has moved half of its business to Malta to avoid paying tax in the UK.
Meanwhile…
[82% of burglaries unsolved by Met Police, Home Office data shows](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-66304969.amp)
That’s insane. It just shows how the big corporations have the MPs and lawmakers in their pockets, when those sort of punishments can apply to, this, while people committing serious offences, against ordinary people, are let off with barely a slap on the wrist. That is if the offense even gets investigated!
So amazon don’t pay tax but we get done for not paying amazon. Hah!
The world is truly on its head.
“Give them bread and circuses, and you can get away with anything”
“Okay but listen, some of them were sneaking into the circus using dodgy sticks, so we put them in prison for that”
Good to know my wife’s ex-friend can stalk and intimidate her for 3 years and the police say there’s nothing they can do about it. But if I told them the same person had a dodgy fire stick they would look into it.
Clickbait title. It’s people distributing them, not using them.
Classic scaremongering headline and article. They only ever go after distributors and resellers.
The most any user has ever gotten is a warning letter. No individual in the UK has ever been charged and arrested for only watching illegal streams.
Clickbait ASF, title applies to distributors. No way a single user of a firestick will have their fucking house raided
More bullshit paid for by the government to scaremonger, whilst the real issues are ignored as usual
Good luck getting £50k off them, why do they think they’re using dodgy fire sticks in the first place
Maybe if the providers didn’t continually jack the prices and stuff more ads in then people wouldn’t do this.
I mean, some people would, but most honest people dont mind paying a fair price for a service, but it’s getting really bad. The only reason I have any streaming services is because one of my credit card gives me a refund on them and I get a lot of discounts for working in my industry
There isn’t a single reported case of an IPTV user being prosecuted in the UK. Of 5 million users only approx 1000 have been contacted with cease and desist letters.
The target is the distributers because there are fewer targets but along side that the best the broadcasters can do are these various transparent PR stories (that take liberties with the facts) via regional online news outlets to discourage and scare people away from IPTV services.
Until the broadcasters make their services more affordable in this dire economy, people will continue to use these cheap services which often offer much more than sky or virgin can offer. For instance, 3pm KO. And since end users are too expensive to find and prosecute, they can continue to use these services without fear.
In lots of these stories it’s people providing the service that gets fined, but they make it seem like those accessing the services are getting fined too.
Why not tackle the reasons as to why IPTV is so popular? The cost for watching football is incredibly high and not every game is available to watch legally. IPTV is often cheaper per year than it is to watch some games legally for a single month.
Wanna stop IPTV? Put price caps that are reasonable for the average person. Ensure that all games are available to watch, I don’t care if there’s no commentary for some games. Ensure that packages are suited to how viewers watch TV. I just watch one team (generally) and you’re talking almost £20 per game if you’re in the premier league and not in European competitions. I’d happily pay £20 a month for a dedicated stream of my team’s games.
Using footy here as an example, but I’m sure it extends to other sports and other categories too.
Harsher punishment for illegally streaming the football than arriving in the UK illegally and sexually assaulting someone.
Bonkers country
What you in prison for mate? Oh I killed 3 people, you? Oh I was using a firestick…
A friendly and timely reminder that the police operate as a force strictly to protect the interests of the rich and wealthy
My old neighbour was broken into about 5 years ago. An elderly, obese lady who hadn’t left her house or even been upstairs in years. She called them and said she had just watched him take a ladder from next doors garden, prop it up against her house and climb in through an upstairs window. She could now hear him rummaging about updtairs. Her grand daughter lived there but was out. Nobody came out till 2 days later. Even then only after repeated phone calls from the grand daughter as she hadn’t touched anything to preserve evidence. They didn’t even look upstairs. Just said there was no realistic chance of catching them.
They have time for firesticks though.
The fact of the matter is that IPTV offer a better service than things like Netflix, Amazon prime, Sky Sports, BT sports etc.
Companies like Spotify and Steam understood this and made a service where you can get basically everytbing thr consumer wants at a reasonable price and as a result the amount of piracy in music and video games industry dropped off a cliff.
No one wants 3/4 different sports subscriptions costing £100 quid a month to watch the Premier league when other counties can do the same thing for a tenner. Same applies for things like films and TV shows.
The best way to reduce crime is to prevent the circumstances that cause it to happen in the first place, the government could try and offer better consumer protection if they want to reduce piracy.
But they won’t, theyll continue to fine/lock up bricklayers who wanted to watch King Kong or burnley vs Sunderland and the problem will get worse year on year until someone actually decides to fix the issue.
Complete and utter waste of resources which takes funding away from addressing real issues.