Apologies if you already know the answers to these questions. It is thought that more than a million people in the UK use illegally modified Fire Sticks, which are loaded with apps enabling the user to access pay-to-view streaming services at no cost (other than a relatively small annual subscription to the seller).
What’s not to like? Quite a lot, actually, as Sunny Kanda, the man who was imprisoned last week, found out. And also as Jonathan Edge, a 29-year-old from Liverpool, discovered two months ago when he was sentenced to three years and four months in prison for the same crime of copyright theft. In the wake of these trials, a spokesperson for National Trading Standards said: “Accessing pirated content through illegal TV Fire Sticks undermines the UK’s entertainment industry, putting its talented workforce and supply chains at risk by depriving them of fair earnings and revenue.” So, not exactly a victimless crime.
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Read MoreYet, while content piracy is indefensible, a little context is necessary to understand Edge’s defence. “He was providing a service to people who would probably not be able to afford it otherwise,” said his counsel. “There’s an element of a Robin Hood to all that.”
The competition between the streaming giants has meant that the last time domestic broadcast rights to live football were sold, the Premier League netted a whopping £6.7bn. Not unreasonably, this cost has been passed on by the streamers to their customers, who, in turn, feel they are paying an unconscionable and unsustainable price.
Meanwhile the crackdown will continue, and more people offering the same illegal service as Sunny Kanda will be jailed. It’s hard to know how this situation will resolve itself, but, as well as determined policing, a measure of proportion and sense must permeate the thinking of the streaming companies.
While they continue to make extraordinary profits, and seek to protect what’s rightfully theirs, they must also be mindful of the economic hardship, the rising costs and the technological literacy of their consumers.
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