It is now ILLEGAL to share your Netflix, Disney+, other passwords with friends and relatives

Photo by Rowan Heuvel on Unsplash

The UK government body overseeing intellectual property rights in the UK, the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), released new guidance on piracy and online counterfeit goods, a joint campaign with Meta, owner of Facebook.

The issue of piracy is generally about the use of illegal streaming boxes and apps and how these 1) expose children to inappropriate content and 2) risk putting sensitive personal information in the hands of criminals. UK legislation now also flags password sharing as piracy, as TorrentFreak pointed out. It is therefore illegal, and a potential crime, to share your Netflix and/or Disney+ login details with your friends and relatives.

A section of the new piracy guidance from the UK government’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) (Source: GOV.UK)

TorrentFreak was told by the IPO: "There are 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.

These provisions may include breach of contractual terms, fraud or secondary copyright infringement depending on the circumstances."

Section 11 of the Fraud Act of 2006 in the UK considers it a fraud if someone uses "services of a members' club without paying and without being a member".

It is  not very likely that streaming services will to start dragging to court those who are sharing passwords, or "moochers" (individuals borrowing a subscriber's credentials). Still, the guidance could well serve as a deterrent for people who are sharing their subscription details with friends or relatives.

Risky business

Sharing one’s streaming service login details with others is risky business (security wise) for subscribers and usually yields negative results for the service provider.  These providers lose money as long as they let this password sharing go on. According to a survey from Beyond Identity, streaming service providers lose, on average, some $640 per 'moocher' annually. In some cases they could lose as much as $700 a year!

The cost of piracy, as estimated by Parks Associates, in US alone, was $9.1B in 2019. The amount is estimated to increase to $12.5B by 2024.

No wonder they are cracking down on password sharing!

In October, Netflix announced its intention to start doing just that soon. The company has already introduced features to members in certain Latin American countries where they can share their account details with others safely and legally: a new profile can be added to their account for an added cost. Netflix may well roll out this provision in other countries.

"[Streaming services] don’t necessarily want people to go elsewhere," Paul Erickson, the Research Director of Entertainment and Consumer Technology at Parks Associates, said in an interview. "We'll see them navigate that difficult middle ground where they’re not trying to give the service away, but they’re also not trying to drive people away either."

So be prepared!

It looks like it is going to be more difficult to share you password. Or, at the very least, you may have to pay for doing so. 

There is, off course, the risk of getting a criminal record...

Pirate Bay Co-Founder’s Sentence Cut In Half

Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm Warg's prison sentence for hacking and fraud has been reduced from two years to one. (Photo: Reuters)

Pirate Bay co-founder, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg had his prison sentence for hacking and fraud reduced from two years to one. A Swedish appellate court made the decision on Wednesday after finding that one of the hacking charges against Svartholm Warg lacked sufficient evidence, the Associated Press reported. Namely, charges relating to the hacking of Nordea Bank AB were dismissed, while other hacking charges were upheld.

The Pirate Bay co-founder's sentence was cut in half because the Svea Court of Appeal said it could not rule out Svartholm Warg's claim that others could have remotely accessed his computer to hack into the Nordea Bank AB's servers. While the court dismissed the bank hacking charges, it upheld the conviction against Svartholm Warg of hacking into the servers of two other companies, Applicate and Logica, which handle sensitive information for Sweden's police force and tax authority. The Wall Street Journal reported that Svartholm Warg was originally convicted of hacking into all three companies' servers in June, resulting in the two-year sentence.  

The Pirate Bay is one of the world's biggest free file-sharing websites, giving millions of users a way to illegally download music, movies and software. Since launching the site in 2003, Svartholm Warg and fellow co-founder Fredrik Neij have been embroiled in controversy. In 2009, the co-founders, along with company spokesman Peter Sunde and businessman Carl Lundstrom, were given one-year sentences for copyright violation by a Swedish court and ordered to pay 46 million kronor ($6.5 million) in damages to the entertainment industry.

Svartholm Warg left the country while appealing that ruling. He was arrested in Cambodia in 2012 and deported back to Sweden after an international arrest warrant was issued against the Pirate Bay co-founder, per the AP. He served out his first sentence for copyright violation while under detention over his hacking charges.

But while the Pirate Bay co-founder might have had his sentence reduced in Sweden, he might not be out of hot water yet. Decrypted Tech reported that Svartholm Warg is facing extradition to Denmark, as he is a suspect in a breach that resulted in the theft of driving records and social security numbers. The Danish authorities expect to have Svartholm Warg in custody in a few days.

Source: idigitaltimes.com