Amazon issues warning to millions of Fire Stick owners

Bad news for anybody using an Amazon Fire TV Stick illegally, as the company is set to clamp down on illegal streaming.

They're following in the footsteps of Disney+ and Netflix who put a stop to account sharing, meaning no more free TV for many.

It comes as they announced the new Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select last month, which will allow you to stream in 4K, and make the most of your HD TV.

Pre-order the new Fire Stick now

The brand-new Fire Stick Select comes out on Monday October 20, but you can pre-order now - and if you trade in your old device you'll save 20 percent too.

(Amazon)

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The new fire stick comes equipped with an in-house operating system run by Amazon, called Vega.

It's this new OS which aims to stamp out the black market practice of 'jailbreaking' Fire Sticks.

Until now, people have been purchasing Fire Sticks which have been tampered with illegally, allowing them to stream and watch thousands of programs and channels for free, which would have otherwise been kept behind a paywall.

The new Fire Stick was unveiled last month (M. Scott Brauer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The older models of Amazon's Fire TV Stick run off an Android Operating System, which hackers have become adept at working with to 'sideload' apps onto.

By 'sideloading' the apps, it has enabled people to bypass the paywalls, and to stream the premium content without paying for it.

It is thought that Amazon's decision to move to the Vega OS will prevent this, or at the very least make it much more difficult.

Developers will need to redesign their existing Android apps in order to work on the new Vega OS, and new apps will need to be approved by Amazon before they can be distributed to users.

The new Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select also uses Alexa, and can find shows for you to watch faster than ever.

Older models, like this from 2016, are more susceptible to tampering (Photo by Bill Tompkins/Getty Images)

It has not been confirmed how long the previous Android OS will still work on older Fire Sticks, as no end date has been given for when they will be disabled.

According to TorrentFreak, Amazon will also disable any suspected 'piracy' apps.

A warning will be shown on screen which reads "This app has been disabled because it can put your device or personal data at risk. You can keep the app on your device but you will be unable to use it. To remove the app and recover storage space on your device, select ‘Uninstall’ below."

When loading the new OS, users will be shown the new terms and will need to agree to them to continue.

You can buy your new Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select below.