A STICKY SCENARIO

Streaming sports, telly series and films on a modified device is illegal, but 'dodgy stick' devotees do not appear to care. Katie Rosseinsky explores how this is not a victimless crime

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In a world where new streaming platforms seem to launch every month (and the ones you've already signed up for are hiking up their prices almost as frequently), one simple device is offering access to pretty much everything you could ever want to watch.

You just have to get in touch with a friend of a friend, or follow a dubious link on a popup-laden website, hand over a one-off fee, and you're sorted. Or so you think.

This is the promise of the so-called “dodgy stick”, the ubiquitous nickname for modified - or, to use the more technical term, “jailbroken” - versions of easy-to-use devices such as Amazon Fire Sticks that come pre-loaded with thousands of free channels and streaming libraries. Conduct a quick poll of your friends or colleagues, and you'll probably discover that many of them already own a similar device. Perhaps they’re using it to follow their football team of choice without endless sports subscriptions, or to watch American shows before they land in the UK.

The only catch? It’s completely illegal. Using modified sticks to stream content that you’re not paying for violates the Fraud Act of 2006. Yet this doesn’t seem to put off the devotees. Otherwise law-abiding citizens who'd never dream of dabbling in other illicit behaviour seem perfectly happy to break the rules when it comes to dodgy sticks. Some of them don’t even realise they’re doing anything wrong.

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