this post was submitted on 31 May 2025
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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[–] Sixtyforce@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Please don't give Amazon money for a shitty android stick. It's rather locked down too and the GUI is ad riddled. A lot of playback bugs that I don't have on a competitor product. There's many better alternatives with less god awful remote controls as well.

Just make sure you're not buying some generic Chinese thing with a compromised linux kernel.

[–] bitwolf@sh.itjust.works 176 points 1 week ago (4 children)

To be frank it's not Amazon's problem.

Its the content publishers problem.

And Amazon isn't enabling this, they're just making an Android device.

The users are putting software onto the device.

This article sets a dangerous precedent. That if Amazon doesn't lock the firestick down like Apple that they're enabling piracy.

Its not Googles nor Microsoft's responsibilities either. They helped, probably solely for money, but they're not obligated to continue to update their DRM.

This article should have framed how DRM repeatedly hasn't worked.

[–] melroy@kbin.melroy.org 51 points 1 week ago

The more piracy the better imo. And I don't need to explain why anymore, that is obvious

[–] gabelstapler@feddit.org 27 points 1 week ago

Amazon is already locking down the fire stick. A few years ago you could easily modify the software via adb, deactivate the updater, uninstall the menu. In the meantime they made it much harder, luckily I modified mine in time.

[–] cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 1 week ago

They should just remove the DRM from all streaming services. The fact that new TV shows can be downloaded within minutes of airing is a good indicator that it doesn't work for its intended purpose. It just makes me find another source since I can't watch them using my preferred browser and operating system.

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[–] drspod@lemmy.ml 85 points 1 week ago

All pirates drink water. What is water doing to stop piracy?

[–] chemicalwonka@discuss.tchncs.de 72 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Piracy is morally correct, copying from greedy companies that spy on their customers for shady purposes and take advantage of their position to impose unfair terms. If buying no longer means owning something then pirating cannot be considered theft

[–] Ohmmy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Piracy has never been theft because nothing is missing. It's not stealing or theft if someone takes a picture of my shoes and makes their own because I still have shoes.

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[–] miss_demeanour@lemmy.dbzer0.com 48 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

If Big Media is losing all this money, why aren't they claiming these losses on their taxes?

Is it because they haven't lost a dime?

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[–] artocode404@lemmy.dbzer0.com 48 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Why is it ALWAYS the sports companies? Who cares about somebody illegally watching grown men try to prove they're better than other grown men that much 🙄

[–] dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 23 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Quite a reductive view of sport.

[–] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 23 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] PattyP@lemm.ee 7 points 1 week ago (5 children)

I guess, but at the highest level it is a well paying job. You wouldn’t say that actors show up to work to prove that they’re the best. They’re doing something they are good at and getting paid for their time, and so are high level athletes. They’re both part of productions that entertain people. Yes, sports are a competition, but by and large people are watching for the drama.

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[–] sugarfoot00@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 week ago

Why is it ALWAYS the sports companies?

Because that's the biggest broadcast rights moneymaker. Cable would be full and truly dead without sports.

[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 7 points 1 week ago

It's one half of 'bread and circuses'.

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[–] skozzii@lemmy.ca 43 points 1 week ago

Yes focus on Amazon, the only known way to pirate..

[–] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 42 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Lately Ars Technica seems quite intent on losing any quality they had.

What kind of boot licking, inaccurate, non-news shit is this?

The only potential reason for this article is farming engagement bait clicks from people who don't know shit about fire sticks, and from people like us stunned at the stupidity.

[–] pineapplepizza@lemm.ee 7 points 1 week ago

Or because they are a media company with a media owner/parent company that has an interest in directing public opinion that piracy bad mkay.

[–] themoonisacheese@sh.itjust.works 41 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Publishers under the impression that they somehow deserve "billion of dollars" more money than they already get for checks notes being a middleman.

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[–] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 37 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Same way as an HDMI cable enables piracy?

[–] kolorafa@szmer.info 1 points 2 days ago

HDMI has DRM 🫣

[–] fckreddit@lemmy.ml 27 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Internet enables most, if not all the piracy.

[–] sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al 40 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Poor service enables most, if not all piracy.

[–] jol@discuss.tchncs.de 24 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The mitochondria enables most, if not all, piracy.

One could say it powers most, if not all, piracy.

[–] mustbe3to20signs@feddit.org 13 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Mitochondria the powerhouse of ~~the cell~~ piracy.

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[–] dutchkimble@lemy.lol 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The real enablers are the guy who make the movies and tv shows in the first place. If they don’t make stuff, no one would pirate that stuff.

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[–] mustbe3to20signs@feddit.org 9 points 1 week ago

Atleast in countries with some sort of internet access. For example Cuba enjoyed current movies and shows despite a strict US/Western embargo through a combination of smuggled USB pen drives and a peer-to-peer radio network.

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[–] albert180@piefed.social 24 points 1 week ago
Over twenty years since launch, the DRM solutions provided by Google and Microsoft are in steep decline. A complete overhaul of the technology architecture, licensing, and support model is needed. **Lack of engagement with content owners indicates this a low priority.**  

It's funny that even the techbros don't like them

[–] bigfoot@lemm.ee 21 points 1 week ago

You gotta pump those numbers up those are rookie numbers

[–] eugenevdebs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Well my Fire TV has a Jellyfin app that's letting me watch shows not in streaming services or is impossible to get in my home country due to copyright.

Anyone else know the other apps that help make Amazon the ire of copyright?

[–] SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Wolf Launcher, if you don't want to deal with the shitty stock launcher.

CloudStream is good if you watch anime.

The folks on r/piracy seem to like an app called Stremio, but I haven't got that one set up yet.

I have a Jellyfin client.

SmartTube Next is an ad free Youtube client for the firestick.

And then I also have Kanopy and Hoopla which let me access media via my public library card.

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[–] Goten@piefed.social 16 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

common android win [i edited my comment. i wont tell you, user, what i wrote. trololo]

[–] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 week ago

This is just "android sticks allow sideloading apps". Nothing Amazon specific to any of this.

[–] jabjoe@feddit.uk 14 points 1 week ago

Just leaving this here : https://boingboing.net/2012/01/10/lockdown.html

This is battle they can't win and it just makes everything stupid trying.

[–] cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

yeah it's the one good thing amazon does.

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[–] Bakkoda@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 week ago

Old tech is holding the world together

[–] ToadOfHypnosis@lemm.ee 10 points 1 week ago

Because the content industry is do destitute. They aren’t making billions?

[–] Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

There is a difference.

Say you buy a used PC or android stick and want to use it for piracy, ok, doable, but you'll be doing most of the work. Kodi builds can get you there easily.

but compared to firesticks?

Firesticks have a piracy singularity going on. The entire secondary phase of cracking the OS and installing is intended for piracy. It's an open and shut, easy, one-two punch to get into the ecosystem. All of the hardware is easy to track and maintain. My cousin has a hacked firestick and he can't even open Microsoft Word. You can buy them pre-hacked with no real input or work needed on your part.

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following this argument this article is also enabling piracy by giving people good ideas 💡

[–] ABetterTomorrow@lemm.ee 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I still don’t understand what’s going on with the fire stick though. What are people actually doing to it?

[–] fluxx1@lemm.ee 14 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Nothing. What people think and say is jail breaking is actually side loading custom android apps, which is actually already part of android. Amazon IMO made it more difficult than it's supposed to be. I installed vlc and stremio and use it alongside all the other apps. Nothing groundbreaking nor illegal. That's not jailbreaking, it's using Android the way it's designed to be used.

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[–] albert180@piefed.social 7 points 1 week ago

Oh no! Anyway...

[–] r00ty@kbin.life 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah, but asking film/tv producers for permission would kill my content collection!

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[–] sirico@feddit.uk 6 points 1 week ago

Shut up ars you grass

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