Roku Developer Account No Longer Working?

If you recently installed a channel in Roku developer mode that contained copyrighted content, you may find yourself forever banned from using developer mode again on that particular Roku or any Roku models linked to your account.

In an attempt to block pirate channels Roku has begun blocking users from entering Developer Mode on their Roku.

Developer mode was a way to sideload channels to your Roku for testing purposes if you are a Roku channel developer. Some prohibited paid and free private channels which Roku removed were using developer mode as a workaround for their users to still watch content from their channel.

Earlier this year Roku has begun cracking down on users who had side-loaded channels into developer mode and basically made it so they were unable to use developer mode again on that particular device, or any other device linked to their Roku user account.

When several users complained about this on the Roku Forum a while back, here is what Roku Forum Moderator had to say.

"A change recently went into effect that would remove your ability to access the Application Installer (i.e. from side-loading channels) on devices that have violated our End User License Agreement or our Developer Tools Agreement.

I followed up with our dev. relations and was told that about a dozen people have contacted us about this but when researched further, not one of them has turned out to be a genuine developer, i.e. they did not have a published channel or a bona fide app under development.

Turns out some additional security measures are in place to curb organized content piracy since side-loading was being abused by some apps to circumvent restrictions."

Roku intends for its customers to only watch legal licensed content on their platform and they are cracking down on any channel that does not follow their License agreement.

Roku also knows precisely which channels you are using on your Roku and for how long you are watching them. They intend to profit from selling ads, so they now have sophisticated tracking software in place so they can measure what is being used on their platform. Since a large majority of its users are using their platform to watch content from legal sources they are not overly concerned from the small percentage that will simply choose to go elsewhere.

For those that are simply going to use Fire TV Sticks as alternatives, we can't say for certain but it's just a matter of time before Amazon finds itself in hot water also for allowing widespread piracy on its platform and starts cracking down on uncertified apps that they don't have listed in their Amazon App Store.

For that matter, any media streamer that uses the Android OS could eventually be restricted, because after all, it is Google that owns and develops the Android operating system that these boxes all run on. Should Google decide to flip a switch and longer allow unsupported apps, this would also have a major impact on how Fire TV's Nvidia SHIELDs and any other Android TV box clone was used to watch uncertified or pirated content.

This would bring things right back to where they started before low-cost media streamers became popular. Instead of these cheap media streaming devices, many would simply go back to using low-cost home theater PCs like these or notebook computers hooked up to a TV. That would then let those who wanted to, continue watching any content they wanted from apps like Kodi or Plex completely unrestricted or monitored to easily do so. That is until Microsoft or Apple starts tightening up it's operating system and no longer allows it's users to use it unrestricted.

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