In a controversial move, online retail giant Amazon has reportedly started deregistering Fire TVs and Fire TV Sticks that they believe are registered to reseller accounts.

For customers who own more than 10 Fire TV devices - registered to the same Amazon account - this has reportedly been happening since October, but more frequently over the previous weeks. 

Blogger, Elias Saba, has been inundated with messages from concerned users who have had their devices deregistered for no apparent reason.

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Some concerned users have as little as three devices and others report that they have been logged out twice this month alone.

Glasgow Times:

Elias reached out to Amazon for comment on the matter, but has not yet received a response.

Speculation on forums is rife for the reason behind the deregistration with many believing that it is linked to piracy.

Are they being deregistered to fight resellers?

Some individuals buy Fire TV devices, load them with piracy software, and resell them for a profit with the promise of free movies and TV shows.

In order for the resellers to load piracy software onto these devices, they must first sign into the device with an Amazon account.

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They usually create fake ones that are used specifically for the setup process, and leave those Amazon accounts signed in so the buyers of the device can start using them immediately - without the concern of linking their legitimate Amazon account to an illegal device.

The continued use of a throwaway accounts is the biggest problem for Amazon, more so than the use of the Fire TV device to consume pirated content.

Amazon sells Fire TVs and Fire TV Sticks at essentially what it costs to make them, meaning they don’t make any money on the sale of the hardware, and possibly lose money when you factor in development, distribution, and marketing costs.

Amazon’s market strategy is to make their profit after the device is sold, through Prime memberships, movie and TV show purchases, banner ads in the interface, generic shopping, app purchases, and various other ways.

If a customer buys a Fire TV device and never spends any additional money as a result of that purchase, Amazon literally loses money.

The ones being most negatively affected by these deregistrations are legitimate customers who have fully invested in the Fire TV ecosystem.

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An Amazon account with many Fire TVs registered to it is often a customer with devices on all of their TVs, who has likely upgraded those devices over the years as new Fire TV and Fire TV Stick models are released - that’s why they have so many devices registered, not because they are a reseller of illegal goods. 

If Amazon is solely using the number of Fire TV devices registered to an account to determine if that account is a reseller, then it could potentially lose a lot of customers.

Not everyone is using their account or their Fire TV device for illegal purposes.