A man who sold illegally-modified TV Firesticks has been jailed for two years, after ‘costing’ providers like Sky, BT and Netflix £108,000 during an 18-month period between 2020 and 2022. How will these billion dollar companies ever recover from such a loss?!
Sunny Kanda, 40, of Creek View, Wheatley, Halifax, infringed on copyright laws when selling the Firesticks on a closed Facebook group which had more than 3,900 members. Thousands of people around the UK are seeking out these devices in order to watch live sports and films on a budget, rather than fork out hundreds of pounds every month on legitimate providers.
Kanda was busted after an undercover investigator, working with National Trading Standards, infiltrated Kanda’s group and bought one of the devices. Sure enough, the investigator found the device had been modified to provide unauthorised access to premium film, TV, and live sports content using apps called The Vodfather XC and Plex.
Kanda pleaded guilty to three charges relating to fraud, copyright and concealing bank transfers linked to criminal activity, and was locked up for two years this week. He may also have to pay back the money he made if courts decide that financial orders will be imposed on him.
A spokesperson for National Trading Standards said:
“Accessing pirated content through illegal TV Firesticks undermines the UK’s entertainment industry, putting its talented workforce and supply chains at risk by depriving them of fair earnings and revenue. It also puts consumers at risk by exposing them to illegal software that can put their data and bank details in jeopardy.
“Today’s sentence is an important reminder to all those who buy and sell TV Firesticks that crime does not pay – it breaches copyright law and we encourage people to report suspected cases to the Citizens Advice consumer service.”
Now as far as we know, buying and/or owning a dodgy firestick itself isn’t illegal. It’s only illegal if you make money from it like Sunny Kanda and so many others around the UK are doing. Obviously Kanda knew that what he was doing was 100% illegal and so he can’t have too many qualms about the fact he was arrested and is going to prison for it.
Even still, it is shocking to see how harshly the courts treat people who cheat corporations of of money, compared to how they treat many other crimes. For example, how can Huw Edwards receive a suspended sentence for literally distributing child abuse material, and this random guy from Halifax has to spend two years behind bars for selling dodgy firesticks? Do we no longer have a ‘shortage of prison spaces’ when it comes to defrauding major corporations out of money?
I also don’t buy the argument that all the people Kanda sold Firesticks to would have otherwise bought legitimate subscriptions (which is how the courts concluded he defrauded BT, Sky etc out of £108k). I think most of us are OK with Amazon hosting Premier League matches for £10 a month, but what about Sky and TNT and all the rest put together? We’re the only country that has such overpriced sports subscriptions, and we don’t even get the 3pm games on weekends!
If the costs of these subscriptions were more sensible, maybe there wouldn’t be a market for hacked Firesticks in the first place.
For the time Logan Paul expertly trolled the BBC by sending a lookalike to be interviewed by them over his crypto scam allegations, click HERE.
