Sony has patented a new technology that would block illegal sideloaded and 3rd party apps on streaming devices and more.

As first reported by TorrentFreak, this technology would monitor all apps installed outside of the device’s official app store.

We want to know what you think of this new technology. Let us know in the comment section below!

Sony has been at the forefront of the anti-piracy movement since the beginning of the decade.

The company pursued legal action against Napster and has continued the battle against online pirates.

At the beginning of 2023, a patent was published by Sony that can blacklist various apps & APKs on streaming devices and more.

The motive behind this software is the ability to block access to pirated Movies and TV Shows that are readily available in these applications.

Some of these third-party applications may include pirate applications that may acquire content from rogue websites to stream pirated content onto the streaming device…

In such scenarios, the pirate applications may provide premium content to the streaming device without authorization, and may subvert the services of legitimate content providers…

Shown below is an example picture of how the technology might work from the patent published by Sony Corp.

You can read the entire patent using the link below.

Sony Patent Anti-Piracy Technology

Sony’s intentions, it seems, are to implement this technology in streaming devices such as Firestick and Android TV.

However, whether or not Amazon & Google will choose to use this technology is entirely up in the air.

We have seen anti-piracy coalitions and others pressure major media companies into removing apps from their app stores and more.