Four arrested for piracy within days of Amazon's Fire Stick side-loading crackdown – is this the beginning of the end for illegal streamers?

Following police raids, four men have been arrested in West Yorkshire in a crackdown on illegal sports streaming in the UK. As reported in The Athletic, the four were arrested for copyright and money-laundering offences and are suspected of running an operation with a six-figure turnover that sold hacked Amazon Fire Sticks.

This comes amidst increasing restrictions on the use of the best VPNs – including laws requiring VPNs to block illegal sites in France – and the new Amazon Fire Vega OS being incapable of installing unauthorised apps. This has led many to speculate that time may be up for pirates – especially those using Fire TV devices.

A spate of arrests

The arrests came in the last week of October 2025, and saw police raiding four properties. The investigation, led by digital and cybercrime specialists, initially focused on one person before expanding to cover several individuals selling IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) services, with each one suspected of operating their own network of resellers in a pyramid structure.

It is reported that resellers in illegal IPTV networks sometimes engage in other illegal activities such as selling drugs, but piracy alone can be highly lucrative, with proceeds going into the millions.

It’s worth noting, of course, that there are many legitimate IPTV services, including YouTube TV and Peacock in the US. Other providers, however, allow viewers to illegally access premium services, such as sports broadcasting.

Recent months have seen the illegal Streameast network of 80 sites shut down, and a Yorkshire man being jailed for three years for running a £1m streaming operation.

"Knock and Talk"

As reported in Birmingham Live, investigative agency FACT is working with UK police to identify distributors of "dodgy" Fire Sticks, and copyrighted material in general.

FACT stated: "We utilise a range of methods to identify individuals engaged in unauthorised businesses that offer access to illegal streams.

"One of these methods is through our partnership with Crimestoppers to make it as easy as possible to report illegal streaming, and over the past year, we have seen a significant increase in the number of reports directly linked to Fire Sticks and illegal streaming."

Once an offending individual has been identified, FACT follows up by sending "Cease and Desist" letters, and undertaking "Knock and Talks".

“These home visits, undertaken in conjunction with law enforcement," FACT continues, "serve to inform individuals about their activities and the immediate need to cease and desist or face further action or prosecution. We also work in close collaboration with law enforcement to gather further evidence to actively pursue legal actions against these criminal entities."

A wider crackdown on illegal streaming

These arrests and crackdowns take place against the background of Amazon’s new Vega OS, recently launched with its Fire Stick 4K Select. The new operating system, based on Linux, joins the older Android-based Fire OS, which is well-known for allowing users to “side-load” Android apps – the process of installing unverified apps by circumventing the app store.

A key difference between Vega OS and Fire OS is that Vega OS does not allow side-loading, making access to illicit streaming apps much more difficult, if not impossible. What's more, Amazon is also reportedly cracking down on unauthorized streaming apps on Fire OS devices in an effort to curb piracy.

In a similar vein, Fire Sticks running Vega OS don’t currently support VPN apps. An update that will unlock VPN support is expected soon, but only NordVPN and IPVanish have announced they have apps ready to go.

If you want to use the best Fire Stick VPNs in the meantime, you'll need to use an older model – and be sure to check out the best Black Friday VPN deals for the best price.

In a survey by Enders Analysis, 59% of UK respondents who watched pirated material on a physical device reported using an Amazon Fire TV product. Given this, Vega OS will mean a major change for the market, and we may see users switching to other devices in the years to come.

The penalties for infringing copyright online dramatically increased with the UK Digital Economy Act 2017, which extended the maximum penalty from 2 to 10 years and removed the requirement that individuals needed to profit from the offence to be subject to the legislation.

VPNs are legal in the UK and the US and are a legitimate service for protecting your privacy online. However, with increasing numbers of people using VPNs to circumvent the Online Safety Act, there has been discussion of how the government should respond, including, even, suggestions of a VPN ban.

Meanwhile, Cloudflare has been used to geo-block pirate streaming sites in the UK to stop users from accessing them, even with a UK-based VPN server.

Who does this affect?

Tom’s Guide does not condone illegal streaming. However, it seems that tech platforms and the police are taking a top-down approach to tackle illegal streaming by simultaneously cracking down on criminal networks and the hardware.

It’s worth mentioning that there’s no evidence that everyday streamers using these apps are currently being targeted, and while some IPTV channels have been shut down, others continue to work. In the past, police in the UK have issued warnings to users, but it doesn’t seem that further action has ever been taken.

However, with authorities cracking down on illegal streaming, and the advent of the "Knock and Talk," it seems very possible individual users may also be targeted in the future.

It is not illegal to install a VPN app on a Fire Stick. We recommend choosing a reputable VPN provider to ensure your privacy and the safety of your personal data. These are the best Fire Stick VPNs.