Netflix To Crackdown On Password Sharing (1 Viewer)

[Bryan^H]

I'm not sure this is going to work n their favor, although it makes sense from their standpoint. Does Disney, Paramount +, HBO Max have any anti sharing rules in place? If not, this might be a devestating (self inflicted) blow to the giant streaming platform.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

All of the subscription streaming services have terms of service disclaimers specifying use limitations.

The Netflix HD plan allows up to two simultaneous streams; the UHD plan allows up to four.

They’re not likely to be going after people where it’s Mom and Dad streaming in different rooms at home while Junior is streaming in his college dorm room - that falls within the allowed terms of service.

They’re much more likely to be going after people where it’s ten unrelated people in disparate geographic locations streaming simultaneously.

If you’re someone who shares a password with a parent or sibling or child, and you’re paying for the number of simultaneous streams you actually use, I wouldn’t worry. That’s exactly why they have different tiers of usage that allow different numbers of simultaneous streams.

If you’re someone who shared your Netflix password with a dozen coworkers in exchange for their passwords for other services, that’s a terms of service violation and the thing they’re looking to crack down on.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

All of the subscription streaming services have terms of service disclaimers specifying use limitations.

The Netflix HD plan allows up to two simultaneous streams; the UHD plan allows up to four.

They’re not likely to be going after people where it’s Mom and Dad streaming in different rooms at home while Junior is streaming in his college dorm room - that falls within the allowed terms of service.

They’re much more likely to be going after people where it’s ten unrelated people in disparate geographic locations streaming simultaneously.

If you’re someone who shares a password with a parent or sibling or child, and you’re paying for the number of simultaneous streams you actually use, I wouldn’t worry. That’s exactly why they have different tiers of usage that allow different numbers of simultaneous streams.

If you’re someone who shared your Netflix password with a dozen coworkers in exchange for their passwords for other services, that’s a terms of service violation and the thing they’re looking to crack down on.

Josh,

Thank you.

That is probably the best explanation I have read in this thread of how Netflix is most likely handling this situation.

They are going after those who violate the number of simultaneous streams allowed for the subscription across multiple locations.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I'm not sure this is going to work n their favor, although it makes sense from their standpoint. Does Disney, Paramount +, HBO Max have any anti sharing rules in place? If not, this might be a devestating (self inflicted) blow to the giant streaming platform.

ESPN+ makes me re-authenticate occasionally. Curiously, I have not needed to do that with Disney+ or Hulu, even though they are part of the same bundle.

If Netflix just forces people to log back in occasionally, similar to ESPN, it will probably cut down on the password sharing some, but will not eliminate it. We do not subscribe to Netflix, but if any service went to a system that was tied to a "home IP address" I wouldn't subscribe. We travel a lot, plus spend about 25% of our time at our place in South Carolina. If I cannot watch while away from our home in Michigan, I will not subscribe.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Exactly. They’re not looking to alienate people who use their service appropriately. I think they actually have pretty generous usage terms since they allow multiple user profiles and give you different levels of service to choose from.

They’re going to be looking at the password that’s being used to stream ten things simultaneously because some college kid gave away their mom’s password to everyone in their dorm. They’re gonna be looking at friends group that barters passwords from different services so eight unrelated people are using the same account.

I really don’t think they care about the husband who’s streaming from home while the wife is streaming while on a business trip. That’s allowed under their terms of service.

I’ve never been denied service on Netflix for using it somewhere other than my billing address. I think once when I was visiting my mother-in-law in Puerto Rico, we got a text asking us to confirm that we were indeed using it in Puerto Rico. Another time I think we had inadvertently tried three streams instead of the two we signed up for (I think my wife and I were in separate rooms and someone had also logged in on a web browser and forgotten it was still playing) and it wouldn’t play a third thing at once. It didn’t lock us out or anything nefarious; we just had to stop playing on one device. I didn’t consider any of these measures to be inappropriate on their part.

 

[Bartman]

Netflix should have done this years ago to improve revenue, why didn't they? I assume each streamer has a device ID (plus IP address info) so that temporary geographic shifts could be ignored by Netflix. If the streamer is gifted, a streamer factory reset would solve that issue.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I largely agree w/ Josh.

They certainly do not want to alienate the vast majority of their (real) customer base... though they had already been doing the things Josh mentioned (to some extent) for a long time now (w/out publicizing it much, if at all), so seems like they might try to do some additional things to discourage excessive sharing (that are clearly contrary to the spirit of what they intended to allow).

Of course, if that doesn't make any meaningful dent in what they perceive is absolutely necessary for this aspect of their bizz, then it behooves them to do more than just that... But doing more isn't free either -- can be costly to design and implement strategies/tactics that might not yield much, if anything positive, for their bottomline (whether short term or long), including the potential backlash...

_Man_

 

[bmasters9]

I really don’t think they care about the husband who’s streaming from home while the wife is streaming while on a business trip. That’s allowed under their terms of service.

So, in essence, you are allowed to use the account on different devices so long as you are subscribed; you just can't give the password to unrelated people-- that's what I'm reading here.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

So, in essence, you are allowed to use the account on different devices so long as you are subscribed; you just can't give the password to unrelated people-- that's what I'm reading here.

You have to remain within the terms of services. I don’t think it’s strictly by relation. I think it’s by household. Here’s what their site says:

Only people who live with you may use your account. Watch on 4 different devices at the same time with Premium, 2 with Standard and 1 with Basic or Basic with ads.

If they choose to enforce their rules, that’s what they are. To me, that doesn’t seem an unreasonably rule. They’re not asking that you always stream in the same physical location. Adult children who attend college 9 months a year can school be considered household members legally, so that’s not likely to be the hill Netflix dies on and shouldn’t cause a major issue. Roommates who share an account aren’t breaking the rule. Families who stream from a vacation home aren’t breaking the rule.

They’re gonna go after who are flagrantly violating their rule and to me it seems like you have to work pretty hard to break it.

 

[DaveF]

I’ll be watching how they implement this with great interest now that I’m traveling frequently for work. There are times when my wife and I may both be watching Netflix in different states at the same time. I was lugging around one of my ATV4K units everywhere I went but I eventually bought a 9th gen iPad to use solely as a media consumption device.

Netflix has been explicit they’re going after shared passwords in different households. Kids using parent’s passwords (or parents using kids’ passwords, if it’s my family) or former roommates still using each others passwords despite having moved to different state years ago.

The traveler situation: this is such a common scenario — I’m also a traveler — that there’s no way Netflix will screw it up.

And it’s probably easy: the app knows what device it’s on. It knows it routinely connects from your home IP. And it sometimes connects other places.

I’d also guess that logging in even on other devices at other locations will not be a problem. That would be an intermittent connection out of home. A couple days out of state. And then back home for a month until the next trip.

I’d bet Netflix is targeting routine use over long periods from multiple locations. Two devices used daily in two different cities or states. Or a residential location and a university location.

 

[Alex...]

Netflix details how it will prevent users from sharing their account password with others​

Netflix details how it will prevent users from sharing their account password with others

Netflix last year announced that it has been working on a feature to prevent users from sharing their account passwords with others. The change was being tested in some countries as the company claims that users sharing their Netflix accounts hurts its revenue. Now Netflix has detailed how...

www.google.com

 

[Sam Posten]

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

All of the subscription streaming services have terms of service disclaimers specifying use limitations.

The Netflix HD plan allows up to two simultaneous streams; the UHD plan allows up to four.

They’re not likely to be going after people where it’s Mom and Dad streaming in different rooms at home while Junior is streaming in his college dorm room - that falls within the allowed terms of service.

That wasn't what Netflix had announced. As detailed on their website, all simultaneous streams would now be required to be associated with your "primary location", and any devices that go too long without being signed in via your primary location's network would be blocked. The only exception seemed to be 7-day passes for when you're traveling.

To anyone with a modicum of common sense, this would backfire catastrophically, because it casts too wide a net. It fails to take into account people who have multiple homes, for one thing. Or someone who utilizes their account at home and on the office wifi during their lunch breaks. It's going to curtail use by legitimate subscribers in ways that will prove alienating.

And Netflix appears to be wising up to that fact, as the page outlining the new restrictions has been taken down, and they're now claiming that the information is only applicable to Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru, and errantly went live in other countries.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I am not condoning sharing of accounts, but let's face it, many families do it.

All the other services seem to tolerate it.

Netflix charges much, much more than most all of them. Given the "wide net" that Adam mentions above and the problems it will certainly cause, the service should just suck it up like everyone else.

I know it may not be the right thing to say, but if until there is a more foolproof method of catching account sharing, I think Netflix should leave it alone.

I won't pay for Netflix. It's too expensive. I know I can do month-to-month, but I personally object to the exorbitant price of what they are charging for a 4k feed.

 

[TravisR]

To anyone with a modicum of common sense, this would backfire catastrophically...

Yeah, I'm hardly that intelligent but I said from the jump that this move was just going to piss people off and make Netflix look like a bunch of jerkoffs. And while it's completely anecdotal, I've only seen deep criticism of NF on Twitter. Zero support for them and a barrage of people pointing out how they cancel so many shows after one season, how they constantly raise their prices, how their shows & movies aren't really that good anyway and how NF are hypocrites because a few years ago, they said "Love is password sharing".

 

[Bryan^H]

That wasn't what Netflix had announced. As detailed on their website, all simultaneous streams would now be required to be associated with your "primary location", and any devices that go too long without being signed in via your primary location's network would be blocked. The only exception seemed to be 7-day passes for when you're traveling.

To anyone with a modicum of common sense, this would backfire catastrophically, because it casts too wide a net. It fails to take into account people who have multiple homes, for one thing. Or someone who utilizes their account at home and on the office wifi during their lunch breaks. It's going to curtail use by legitimate subscribers in ways that will prove alienating.

And Netflix appears to be wising up to that fact, as the page outlining the new restrictions has been taken down, and they're now claiming that the information is only applicable to Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru, and errantly went live in other countries.

I almost exclusively use Netflix on my iPad at work during my lunch hour. This is very prohibitive and will end my Netflix sub unfortunately.

Also:

Confirmed: Netflix Unveils First Details of New Anti-Password Sharing Measures

After months of warning subscribers that anti-password sharing measures were coming to Netflix, the company appears to be finally set to unleash them. Sign Up $6.99+ / month netflix.com Netflix has estimated that over …

thestreamable.com

Sign in every 31 days or be blocked!! LOL...Seriously?

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Wow! That's certainly much more draconian/oppressive than originally guessed... but in a way, that sorta makes sense (at least merely as an idea for brief trial run I guess) as it's probably much easier/cheaper to implement/try-and-then-abort than other more nuanced, reasonable, customer-friendly policies/methods (that don't deviate quite so much from their original spirit of legitimately sharable usage).

I am not condoning sharing of accounts, but let's face it, many families do it.

All the other services seem to tolerate it.

Netflix charges much, much more than most all of them. Given the "wide net" that Adam mentions above and the problems it will certainly cause, the service should just suck it up like everyone else.

I know it may not be the right thing to say, but if until there is a more foolproof method of catching account sharing, I think Netflix should leave it alone.

I won't pay for Netflix. It's too expensive. I know I can do month-to-month, but I personally object to the exorbitant price of what they are charging for a 4k feed.

Thing is NF already does what all other services do not, which is tiered pricing explicitly based on (limited) number of simultaneous streams on top of the A/V quality thing.

IF people are already paying more/differently specifically for however many simultaneous streams, they really shouldn't need to implement much more, if any, sharing limitations besides that. I guess they could opt to charge a bit more for each additional simultaneous stream, but beyond that, I don't really see why they should go this route, especially to this extreme...

In our family's case, we actually already opted to cut back down to the 2-stream, no-4K tier upon the last price hike -- and my mother really doesn't use it that often... and me neither... which is why we felt 2 streams (and no 4K) would be just enough. We mostly keep it for my wife and the kids, who are all currently at home...

_Man_

 

[DaveF]

That wasn't what Netflix had announced. As detailed on their website, all simultaneous streams would now be required to be associated with your "primary location", and any devices that go too long without being signed in via your primary location's network would be blocked. The only exception seemed to be 7-day passes for when you're traveling.

To anyone with a modicum of common sense, this would backfire catastrophically, because it casts too wide a net. It fails to take into account people who have multiple homes, for one thing. Or someone who utilizes their account at home and on the office wifi during their lunch breaks. It's going to curtail use by legitimate subscribers in ways that will prove alienating.

I almost exclusively use Netflix on my iPad at work during my lunch hour. This is very prohibitive and will end my Netflix sub unfortunately.

Do people buy pesonal iPads solely for office lunch-time viewing, and never bring it home for perosnal use? I don't understand this iPad scenario that would violate the notional "haven't connected to home wifi the past week"?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Do people buy pesonal iPads solely for office lunch-time viewing, and never bring it home for perosnal use? I don't understand this iPad scenario that would violate the notional "haven't connected to home wifi the past week"?

Some probably do; it sounds like Bryan might. But the bigger issue isn't mobile devices, which can be brought home once a month to be reupped.

But say you have a Roku or an Apple TV+ at your primary residence, and another Roku or Apple TV+ in the entertainment system at your summer camp. You're not going to disconnect your home theater once a month just to bring the streaming device home to connect to your home network. While it's doable, it's enough of a pain in the ass that it makes Netflix a nuisance and an obligation instead of an outlet and a form of recreation.

There's also the road warriors who live out of their suitcases and might not make it home once a month. Or the kids going to college on the other side of the country who can't afford to fly home once a month.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Netflix seems to think that this will encourage people who are sharing passwords to get their own accounts. I think it is more likely that people who are sharing passwords will just do without Netflix if they get cut off.