Netflix to Begin Cracking Down on Password Sharing in Early 2023

[Pezimak]

You can use a VPN on your router.

As per my previous answer, no you cannot, it’s not a common feature at all on ISP routers especially in the UK, and not all third party routers offer it and not all devices like being in a VPN.
I use a VPN to watch shows outside my country, and if I set one in a router to do that then lots of others things wouldn’t work correctly for an example, if they suddenly think they are in the US instead of the UK. But I do appreciate it is an option.

 

[EuroChilli]

How? Those people aren't paying them anyways. Removing people who aren't paying doesn't cost them anything.

In fact, those people are using bandwidth, which costs Netflix money. Removing them saves them money.

The way they are going they seem hell bent on removing those you are paying. In my case, I pay for 2 simultaneous streams. If I choose to share my password with 10 other people, there is a high chance I won't be able to use my own account at times, so, I should be careful who I share it with. Let them try enforce it, at which point they are welcome to close the whole account as they are not getting any more money out of me. I'm perfectly happy with the way Apple Music works and their latest price increase, so that service stays for the foreseeable future. But Netflix?.....It's barely worth it as it is....

Here's the thing. My wife and I used to live in her parents house, so we naturally all shared a Netflix account. We have since moved out, but I have not bothered to sign out of her parents TV. Also, we regularly holiday in Spain and have also signed in to the TV there. Sometimes, her father is there and we aren't, but he watches Netflix there. So, if my wife is somewhere else, I'm at home and her father is in Spain, what then? Only 2 at a time may watch, so what's the problem? No one is using any extra bandwidth, only that which is already being paid for.

I have Primevideo for €25/year, and to be honest, there is enough on it to keep me entertained in my spare time. The Peripheral is a good show. And, Amazon does not complain about password sharing; my wife, her father and I all stream separately at the same time. Even Disney doesn't seem to care about sharing. When we tried it, we also streamed 3 at a time, for just €10/month.

One last thing. With reference to my Apple Music thread. At least there you can listen to music and do many other things at the same time, such as drive and snowboard which is why I've clocked up 44 days of music listening in the last year. With movies and series you can't do anything else productive at the same time.

So come Netflix, try your luck. You seem to think you don't have any competition.

 

[bergert]

As per my previous answer, no you cannot, it’s not a common feature at all on ISP routers especially in the UK, and not all third party routers offer it and not all devices like being in a VPN.
I use a VPN to watch shows outside my country, and if I set one in a router to do that then lots of others things wouldn’t work correctly for an example, if they suddenly think they are in the US instead of the UK. But I do appreciate it is an option.

It is called source routing - almost any router will support it. Set the AppleTV IP address (use static IP) to go the VPN endpoint (IP on your local network). This way, the aTV goes on the VPN, but all other devices go out normally. The only drawback is that the aTV has no internet if the VPN is down (configire auto-connect). I use Draytec Vigor, have a very easy web-GUI; Vigor connects firectly to the fiber (the provider does not know,or support this).

 

[NagasakiGG]

Exactly, the only platform that is very strict so far is "Paramount+". They actually have accounts BY country. For instance, I had an account from Mexico but I could not log in from the US or Europe. It simply said "No account with those credentials exists" or something like that. It seems like they literally have separate account data bases for each market. Now I have a german Account (its "free" with SKY) but I cannot log-in with my US DNS settings on my home wifi because of the same restriction. Not only does it suck for people like "us", it is also a horrible user experience when you travel. At a wedding in India? Out of luck, you cannot log in to your Paramount+ account abroad. At least other streaming services let you login, just with the local content being available.

You can easily "bypass" it. Just create a dummy Brasil Apple ID and charge it with Brasil iTunes Credits. Afterwards just Buy the subscription as you would via the App. That's the most cleanest way how I am doing it for subscriptions which are a bit tricky (such as Discord Nitro, Disney+ with a Turkish acc). I haven't had any problems in Germany, Switzerland and Italy so far.

 

[strongy]

How? Those people aren't paying them anyways. Removing people who aren't paying doesn't cost them anything.

In fact, those people are using bandwidth, which costs Netflix money. Removing them saves them money.

actually since netflix has their boxes in the ISP's most of the time its 1 hop and costs them barely anything.

 

[EuroChilli]

Please define "household" . I have kids in college in another state. They are still a part of my "household", according to the IRS.

Please do....

 

[strongy]

I'm not sure how I feel about Netflix spying through IP addresses, and device IDs. What happens if you use a VPN? How are they going to crack that down?

it will be impossible to track, mobile devices are part of NAT addresses which means multiple devices have the same ip address, most homes do not have static addresses which means they change too some isp's are using nat on homes which means they don't even have a single address for 1 house anymore

 

[EuroChilli]

It says they'll likely use IP addresses and device IDs. So if a device doesn't log in from your "home" IP address within a certain period of time, it will probably considered not part of your household. That way you can use Netflix on your devices when you travel because those devices regularly connect from your home IP when you're back home.

My home IP...have they not heard of dynamic IP's? Most ISP's use them. And, I use uncapped 4G at home, so my apparent location is up to 100km away from where I actually live, and my IP changes even faster than British prime ministers...

Device MAC address's....how are they going to enforce that? What if I personally sign in to and authorise someone else's device and neglect to sign out?

 

[contacos]

You can easily "bypass" it. Just create a dummy Brasil Apple ID and charge it with Brasil iTunes Credits. Afterwards just Buy the subscription as you would via the App. That's the most cleanest way how I am doing it for subscriptions which are a bit tricky (such as Discord Nitro, Disney+ with a Turkish acc). I haven't had any problems in Germany, Switzerland and Italy so far.

The problem is, I want to see the "US content" but I cannot log in to paramount+ with my German paramount+ account when I am in the US (via VPN for example) because each paramount+ account is only for that specific country. This is where Paramount+ differs from other streaming services (which would let you login and simply show you the local content).

You get an "invalid email and/or password" message. Once I turn off the VPN and I am in Germany again, the login works just fine.

 

[nottorp]

So why are they charging me extra for more simultaneous streams then?
I'm paying for two streams, they should allow two streams. If not, they should lower the price.

 

[strongy]

I don’t understand how people don’t recognize that theft is theft. If I buy a membership at a gym would it be “sharing“ to open a side door and let my non-paying friend in every day? Of course not. It‘s clearly theft of a service which is priced based on paying subscribers.

except netflix is giving away 4 passes, so its not stealing because you have 3 extra passes to the gym

 

[strongy]

Fair enough, as the "owner" of your creations you are free to do with them as you will.



Problematic? I agree. I am sure that the powers that be at Netflix also look back on that time of "if they share a password and watch one thing they will eventually get their own account" and see the error in thinking.



Unfortunately it does. TOS can be changed and by clicking OK and continuing to use the service you agree to the new terms. Simple as that.

netflix could also be accused for bait and switch in the scenario

the action (generally illegal) of advertising goods which are an apparent bargain, with the intention of substituting inferior or more expensive goods

https://twitter.com/x/status/840276073040371712

 

[CabanossiHead]

Well I wont keep paying 18 euros for a service that cancels all my shows and then wants even more money for the account cause my parents use it too. We have disney and prime and thats still less combined.

 

[andrewxgx]

curious how this will play out
one way too look at the issue is people consider subscription too expensive to afford alone, and some people who shared fees between one another will not sub at all
one way or another i think we have reached saturation point on tv subs, not much growth to be had anymore

 

[Max Webb]

It's now illegal to password share in the UK (Outside of your household) too they wrote it into LAW. So they can enforce it at will over here.

 

[strongy]

It's now illegal to password share in the UK (Outside of your household) too they wrote it into LAW. So they can enforce it at will over here.

UPDATE 3:09pm yesterday

The government appears to have updated the offending paragraph to remove any mention of password sharing.

 

[NightFox]

We downgraded (and cut out a majority of the streaming services we've been paying for). Charging for 4K is ridiculous when (as far as I'm aware) no one else is doing that.

Sky (now owned by Comcast) still charge a premium for HD. In fact, I'm only surprised they don't charge extra for colour; I'm sure they've considered it though.

 

[I7guy]

No, I don't. Do they actually know? I know I am one subscriber that won't return on a permanent basis. Like you said, and I said. It's modelling which is a way of using the information to predict the future. And it's only a prediction. All I said was that it was unKNOWN, nothing about fingers in the air.

Anecdotally, I have heard here and elsewhere, that people are doing temporary subscriptions and leaving. I've had my account for about 5 years. At best I would only keep it 2 months at a time and several months off. How is that financially better for Netflix?

Temporary subscriptions are clearly better for Netflix than no subscriptions from the same subscriber. But as I said, they chewed on this for a while, probably hired an outside firm for data analytics and have a good idea of what to expect.

 

[steve09090]

Temporary subscriptions are clearly better for Netflix than no subscriptions from the same subscriber. But as I said, they chewed on this for a while, probably hired an outside firm for data analytics and have a good idea of what to expect.

True. Temporary subscriptions are better than no subscriptions. Permanent ones are better than temporary ones. Look, my only point was that modelling isn't always accurate, outside firm or not, although I suspect they have a pretty good in-house group. After all, they are trying to penny-pinch, aren't they?

 

[mnsportsgeek]

You won’t be paying $3. South America is paying $3. US pricing will probably be close to double that.

Ha. No. The basic plan is $7. They’re not charging $6 per additional household.

 

[NagasakiGG]

The problem is, I want to see the "US content" but I cannot log in to paramount+ with my German paramount+ account when I am in the US (via VPN for example) because each paramount+ account is only for that specific country. This is where Paramount+ differs from other streaming services (which would let you login and simply show you the local content).

You get an "invalid email and/or password" message. Once I turn off the VPN and I am in Germany again, the login works just fine.

View attachment 2131662

I've sent you a PN. Maybe you could check it? I just tried it, I have no problems logging into my account. Maybe you're using a flagged VPN? Cyberghost VPN is pretty cool into that. I wouldn't recommend NordVPN as most of the VPNs there are flagged (and never replaced)

 

[PBG4 Dude]

They've already captured this for years.

"Spying"? You realize that this website is capturing your IP address and other information about you right now, right? They're also sending your information to Google, who is using that information for advertising and other purposes.

Safari is blocking 64 “trackers” while I write this reply.

 

[deckard666]

Sky (now owned by Comcast) still charge a premium for HD. In fact, I'm only surprised they don't charge extra for colour; I'm sure they've considered it though.

They charge to skip ads....

"Sky will charge customers £5 if they fast forward through adverts, the broadcaster has announced.

From 1 December, all Sky Glass and Sky Stream users will see the additional charge for the Ad Skipping feature added to their monthly bills unless they opt out.

Anyone who refuses to pay the fee will be unable to skip commercial breaks on live channels, and will also be forced to watch all sponsored messages when using catch-up apps like ITVX and when watching via the Playlists menu."

 

[mattopotamus]

They will lose a lot of money

How so? The person paying for Netflix will keep paying, at least I think they would. As someone that pays for Netflix, but has no problem sharing my account with friends/family, it just means they are on their own.

 

[CabanossiHead]

curious how this will play out
one way too look at the issue is people consider subscription too expensive to afford alone, and some people who shared fees between one another will not sub at all
one way or another i think we have reached saturation point on tv subs, not much growth to be had anymore

We had this thought too. Its too expensive by now and as I said most the shows we liked got cancelt.
So even sharing is more expensive than other offers. There is no reason to continue anylonger.