Is Jailbreaking a Firestick Legal? Analysis into New Streaming Laws in 2021 (USA)

by Mark Anderson Electrician

The short answer is yes, jailbreaking a firestick is completely legal.

The long answer is a bit more muddied.

TechCrunch on the new 2021 Stimulus Package with streaming laws included stated:

"For one thing, the bill includes a proposal from Senator Thom Tillis (a Republican from North Carolina) that would make illegal streaming for profit a felony (rather than just a misdemeanor), with penalties of up to 10 years of imprisonment."

Source: TechCrunch

In other words, the new law basically makes illegal streaming FOR PROFIT a felony instead of a misdemeanor. This means that the new law targets those who are hosting copyrighted content on their servers and making users pay them to access their servers.

In the coming years, IPTV services and IPTV resellers will likely be targeted since they are hosting copyrighted content on their servers and making people pay them directly for access to the servers.

However, the end-user will not be targeted since they have no way of telling which apps or IPTV services has proper licensing that they are using.

The end goal of the new law is to go after those who are making profit off of these services and make it easier to sue them to reclaim losses. Likely, websites that host illegal streams of PPV events and other sporting events will be targeted, going after those who created and are profiting off of the site which they are live streaming all events on. Those websites typically make money through ad revenue since they are free, meaning they are still profiting by streaming copyrighted content right to users.

Again, any end-users should not have any fear of being targeted since this is not stated anywhere in the new law. For extra reaffirmation, a senator recently stated this for those who were worried the government is going after regular people streaming content on their jailbroken firestick in their free time:

Senator Tillis said in a statement. “I am proud this commonsense legislation that was drafted with the input of creators, user groups, and technology companies will become law so we can target criminal organizations and ensure that no individual streamer has to worry about the fear of prosecution.”

Source: TechCrunch

So for those worried when streaming free live tv, movies, tv shows, live sports and more on your jailbroken firestick, you should have nothing to worry about. If you are still worried about streaming and want some extra protection for reassurance - make sure to used a good VPN service to protect yourself and make yourself completely anonymous online while streaming.

2021 seems like there will be a large crackdown on illegal streaming going forward, so always make sure to stay up-to-date with the current laws in your country.