from the and-don't-share-your-SN-password-to-avoid-paying-to-read-either dept.
But you probably shouldn't worry:
It's a known fact that a huge number of streaming service subscribers share their passwords with friends and family. Netflix is trying to crack down on the practice, and the UK government certainly condemns it: password sharing in the UK is a violation of copyright law and could be considered criminal fraud.
[...] TorrentFreak contacted the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) for clarification. "There is a range of provisions in criminal and civil law which may be applicable in the case of password sharing where the intent is to allow a user to access copyright-protected works without payment," the IPO said. "These provisions may include breach of contractual terms, fraud or secondary copyright infringement depending on the circumstances."
The UK's Crown Prosecution Service states that using the services of a members' club without paying and without being a member, which could be applied to sharing streaming services' passwords, is an example of fraud.
[...] Since losing subscribers for the first time in a decade earlier this year, Netflix has been trying to crack down on password sharing, which happens in around a third of US households. Experiments with charging subscribers to add extra homes have taken place in Argentina, Guatemala, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic in preparation for a wider rollout. Netflix also started rolling out a profile transfer tool in October so new subscribers can move their viewing history, personalized recommendations, saved games and other custom settings to their own membership.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Friday December 23 2022, @05:33PM (6 children)
If I've paid for four simultaneous streams, it shouldn't matter who's watching them, I've already paid.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by turgid on Friday December 23 2022, @06:41PM (2 children)
One for each eye and ear. You do have two eyes and two ears, don't you? Otherwise what are you wasting your money on?
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Saturday December 24 2022, @02:54AM (1 child)
Wife and kids. If we want three we have to buy four. So why shouldn't my dad be able to use the fourth at his place?
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by turgid on Saturday December 24 2022, @09:51AM
I completely agree.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Saturday December 24 2022, @07:27AM (2 children)
It matters because it literally states so in the contract. There's a reason that four streams on one account costs less than four separate accounts.
Stop being daft, you know perfectly well why it's priced the way it is. Sharing within a household is different from sharing with friends.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Saturday December 24 2022, @08:32AM
My friends are in my household. They just live somewhere else.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Saturday December 24 2022, @10:30PM
Is one of your friends allowed to watch when they're visiting?
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Friday December 23 2022, @07:43PM
Fraud? Well, Netflix never really wanted us sharing our passwords. Except here. [twitter.com] And here. [wojdylosocialmedia.com] And perhaps here. [fanfest.com]
Fraud? Smells like entrapment to me.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday December 23 2022, @08:21PM (1 child)
The only person who has copyright on my password is myself. So if I share my password with someone else, it can't be copyright violation. Only if someone obtains my password without my permission.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Saturday December 24 2022, @08:12AM
[nostyle RIP 06 May 2025]
(Score: 2) by Fnord666 on Friday December 23 2022, @09:03PM
"I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further."
Lord Darth Vader
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsW9MlYu31g [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by Mojibake Tengu on Friday December 23 2022, @09:28PM (2 children)
Is that junk art really worth the money and, most importantly, the time spent on it?
Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 25 2022, @06:45AM
Generally it's worth MORE[1] than the money used to pay for it. Is your money worth the money and time you spend on making/managing it?
https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/18/netflix-adds-2-41-million-subscribers-soaring-past-expectations/ [techcrunch.com]
[1] Normally if you freely and voluntarily pay for something, it's usually because you think it's worth more than the money it costs, otherwise you wouldn't be doing the trade. Unless for example you feel sorry for Netflix and it's a donation and not trade.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Sunday December 25 2022, @05:55PM
If you haven't spent any time on it, how do you know it's junk? There are a lot of good WWII documentaries, as well as a few humorous (to me, anyway) pseudoscience documentaries, like Lost Civilizations, produced by a man archaeologists call a kook.
I watch it and Paramount+ on my daughter's dime, she watches Disney (Star Wars) and Amazon on mine. Should Netflix start limiting devices to all be in the same physical address to get me to pay, they're shit out of luck. I suspect a lot of people will cancel the subscriptions they're paying for out of outrage that Grandma can't watch I Am a Killer.
The streaming service I use most is the PBS app. It costs £0.
Impeach Donald Palpatine and his sidekick Elon Vader
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Friday December 23 2022, @09:39PM (2 children)
If I share my password with my wife and my immediate family, for use on devices within the home I own, I have committed fraud? I have to purchase a separate account for each family member?
Someone, somewhere, has their head so far up their ass, they are in danger of suffocation.
They would make a better argument if they insisted that each device has to be licensed. But, that would suck just as bad. Family room television, kid's room television, 3 to 6 telephones, 2 or more computers, a laptop or three, and a couple of tablets. That adds up fast.
My view is, I pay for the service to come to my house, it's MY BUSINESS how that service is utilized once it enters the house. Just like all the other household utilities.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 2) by Ox0000 on Friday December 23 2022, @10:17PM
Ahhh, but you see my friend, you make one big mistake: you're assuming you actually own the thing. Silly camper! You don't own anything, everything is licensed!
The statement above is less a prediction, and more a command!
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Saturday December 24 2022, @08:24AM
In the US maybe not. But in the UK - which you might be surprised to discover has its own laws like most other countries in the world - the following applies:
So if you have have paid for a single account to access a stream, and then you allow multiple people to do so with the intent of avoiding payment, then under UK law you might have committed an offence.
The link also says "But you probably shouldn't worry" - because 1. it doesn't apply to you and 2. it is unlikely that it would ever reach a courtroom.
[nostyle RIP 06 May 2025]
(Score: -1, Redundant) by billbellum on Friday December 23 2022, @11:21PM
Do you know what else is illegal in the UK?
(Score: 2) by Sjolfr on Saturday December 24 2022, @09:58PM
Perhaps Netflix should offer a family plan? It's not that hard, tons of other companies do it ...
One could argue that 'household' includes direct family unless they, by default, use the IRS definition of 'household'. Pretty soon, I suppose, Netflix will change the terms to isolate services to a number of devices. US cable/satallite companies already do this which, ironicly, is why a lot of people avoid using them.