Sharing Netflix passwords is NOT a federal crime, ruling is not about streaming

gameofthrones1
I share Netflix, HBO Go and Showtime Anytime accounts with my mom, dad and brother. Apart from my mom and dad, we all live separately. Many families do this, Netflix allows for separate profile creation so you can get recommendations tailored to you, and the CEOs of both HBO and Netflix have said they’re aware of password sharing, they don’t have a problem with it and they aren’t cracking down on it. However many outlets are reporting that despite the nod from major providers, it’s now a federal crime to share Netflix, Amazon Prime and other passwords to popular streaming sites. There have been alarmist articles about this on US Weekly, People Magazine, Fortune and more. (Not that I read Fortune, I had to google that.) It’s all based on a ruling last week by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on a case involving a former employee downloading company data using another person’s account after they were no longer employed by the company. The ruling made it illegal, but the context was not streaming, Netflix was never mentioned, and a judge worried that people would misinterpret the law to apply it to all password sharing. Guess what, the media misinterpreted the law. Snopes shut all of that down by explaining that this law does not apply to password sharing for streaming sites.

In July 2016, a panic swept across social media due to widespread claims a “new law” or other legal action made it a felony or a “federal crime” to share one’s Netflix password.

The rumor quickly decoupled from articles about Netflix passwords and the law, with legions of users simply claiming that as of July 2016 the common practice was highly illegal.

By all accounts, the rumors sprang forth from a 5 July 2016 opinion issued by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco [PDF]. A summary for that opinion quickly revealed that the ruling in question in no way pertained to Netflix; the word “Netflix” appeared nowhere in the 67-page long document.

The decision actually had to do with the use of unauthorized login credentials by former employee to “circumvent … revocation of access,” i.e., someone breached their former employer’s login protocols after having their access revoked upon separation of employment. The opinion had nothing to do with sharing Netflix passwords between siblings or friends…

As is often the case, a brief portion of the summary containing the opinion of a dissenting judge was rapidly seized on by outlets claiming that Netflix password sharing was henceforth a federal crime:

“Dissenting, Judge Reinhardt wrote that this case is about password sharing, and that in his view, the CFAA does not make the millions of people who engage in this ubiquitous, useful, and generally harmless conduct into unwitting federal criminals.”

People who read down to page 23 of the opinion found that the concerns of criminalizing Netflix use were considered in issuing the opinion, and found to be of minor import…

A Los Angeles Times article about the rumors noted that while one judge fretted over future criminalization of password sharing, popular streaming services openly acknowledged the practice and generally viewed it as harmless to their business models.

TLDR: It is not true that any new law was passed in July 2016 criminalizing Netflix password sharing. The ruling that sparked the rumors itself didn’t in any way make the practice a crime; a dissenting judge merely expressed concern that the decision (unrelated to streaming services) opened the door for precedent in password sharing regulation. However, Netflix has previously stated that the company views such sharing as positive and a way to attract new customers.

[From Snopes]

So don’t worry, you can continue to share Netflix and other passwords with friends and family. Just be judicious with it and personally I think it’s ok to share with immediate family but maybe not with friends, cousins or extended family. Netflix responded to Snopes’ request for comment and they basically admitted that their business model allows for this:

Overall, Netflix members can create up to five profiles on each account and the only limit is on how many devices that can be used to access Netflix at the same time, which is by plans. The $11.99 plan allows four devices to stream at the same time; the $9.99 plan allows two. As long as they aren’t selling them, members can use their passwords however they please.

[From Netflix via Snopes]

Remember how Andy Samberg gave out an HBO Now (the web-only version of HBO, not to be confused with HBO Go, the online version for traditional subscribers) password during the Emmys? I checked a few weeks ago just out of curiosity and it no longer works. HBO and other streaming sites know people do this, but they likely want us to do it in a way that’s thoughtful and doesn’t abuse it. As long as one password is shared within a family, and not a huge social group or on a message boards, it’s likely fine. Either way, it’s not illegal yet.

These photos are of course from Game of Thrones, which Kaiser reminds me was the most illegally downloaded show of 2015. Pirating shows is still illegal. Photos via IMDB

gameofthrones3

gameofthrones4

gameofthrones5

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

6 Responses to “Sharing Netflix passwords is NOT a federal crime, ruling is not about streaming”

Comments are Closed

We close comments on older posts to fight comment spam.

  1. Laura says:

    Huh, I didn’t hear any of the prior news reports, but after last week, I honestly stopped looking at most main stream news outlets. This is good news! My sister gives me her Time Warner password, and we give her our Netflix and Hulu passwords. Thank goodness we all won’t be arrested anytime soon!

  2. boredblond says:

    Since law has not kept up with changes the Internet has brought about, I don’t think this is a settled issue..Netflix is a distributor, but if the people who actually own the content get involved, it could get very messy

  3. Angry Cookie says:

    Pirating shows is illegal but what alternative do you have when it’s not available in your country? I’m talking about got here, a French journalist tried to watch it legally in France where hbo isn’t provided, for that he had to subscribe to a new internet/TV provider, to access a channel for which he also had to pay extra money and wait days to get a password. Once it was done, it turned out he couldn’t watch the show on his phone or a tablet (they added an extra fee for that). Once he paid and got to watch the show, he realized the subtitles were encoded into the video which means he couldn’t remove/hide them. Around 50e to watch one show.

    So really at the end of the day it’s not worth it. If hbo cares about pirated contents the first thing they should do is provide a global offer like Netflix. A lot of people would pay, most of the time illegal downloading happens because the show isn’t available in the country.

    • Starkiller says:

      This is a pretty entitled comment. If the show is not available in your country you either wait for it to become available there, you watch shows from your own country, or if for some reason you’re really desperate, you buy a region-free DVD player and watch when it comes out on DVD. Illegal is illegal.

      And I’m sorry, but if this reporter was daft enough to pay €50 to watch one show, well, that’s his own fault.

      • Wurstbonbon says:

        Starkiller: I think your comment is much more entitled than the one above. Where do you live? Golden Americaland? Have you tried living in europe and watching _anything_ legally? I have a netflix account and some other dvd on demand service that costs me quite a lot of money, so I’m really trying to do things legally here in germany, because I really want the money to go the right sources and the artists to be paid, but if your streaming service is lacking behind YEARS on stuff (for many tv series netflix is multiple seasons behind) then don’t go telling me to wait half a freaking decade.
        And then there’s the fun of political borders, deciding which country gets to see stuff at all. I used my netflix account in spain recently and was shocked to see how much more and different stuff I could watch there.

  4. Cee says:

    I share Netflix, HBO Go and Spotify with my family, that’s why we pay the most expensive plan. Of course we’re gonna share passwords – the service is already paid for.