Roku sales are banned in Mexico because pirates keep hacking the devices

Following a court ruling last week, Roku devices are now banned from being sold in Mexico. The decision comes cable provider Cablevisión, owned by media company Televisa, previously requested a court order to stop the sale of Roku devices in the country because hackers would use it to offer Roku owners pirated content from HBO, ESPN, and Televisa’s channels. Although Roku fought for a suspension of that order, the court’s decision last week upheld the ruling.

"Cablevisión cannot allow the content that it licenses from domestic and foreign companies to be illegally used," Cablevisión spokeswoman Maria Eugenia Zurita told Reuters. "We would also like Roku Inc to better supervise the use of its software so that it's not used inappropriately.”

Roku’s policies currently ban copyrighted content from being streamed over its devices without distribution rights, though the case claims hackers would develop unsupported channels with access to pirated content on Roku and sell subscriptions to users over WhatsApp. Roku, which launched its streaming devices in Mexico in 2015, plans to continue to fight the order to restore sales in the country.

The article was published on : theverge