News: 0170260935

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Netflix Says Strict New Password Sharing Rules Were Posted in Error (appleinsider.com)

(Friday February 03, 2023 @05:40PM (msmash) from the change-of-heart dept.)


New Netflix rules that would have enforced a [1]limitation on users' sharing passwords are [2]reportedly a mistake and don't apply in the US -- for now. From a report:

> Netflix has long been planning to cut down on password sharing, or letting friends share one paid account. The company appeared to go further, however, with the inclusion in its help pages of a new set of rules.

>

> Broadly, anyone at a subscriber's physical address could continue using the service. But the paying subscriber would have to confirm every 31 days that a user away from their residence -- such as at college -- was part of the household. According to The Streamable, Netflix says it was all a mistake -- for the United States. "For a brief time yesterday, a help center article containing information that is only applicable to Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru, went live in other countries," a Netflix spokesperson told the publication. "We have since updated it."



[1] https://it.slashdot.org/story/23/02/01/1757236/netflix-unveils-plans-to-prevent-password-sharing

[2] https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/02/03/netflix-says-strict-new-password-sharing-rules-were-posted-in-error



error (Score:4, Insightful)

by hjf ( 703092 )

The error was that they were posted before schedule. They'll become effective worldwide eventually.

Re: (Score:2)

by Joe_Dragon ( 2206452 )

and what about people that have an tv box with just ethernet net or an PC will they need to use WIFI to auth in?

Re: (Score:2)

by unami ( 1042872 )

What about people who run Netflix through a VPN?

Re: (Score:2)

by thegarbz ( 1787294 )

What about anyone who breaks the rules? VPNs aren't allowed. Never have been. Netflix has been playing whack-a-mole with them, so don't think just because this password sharing thing isn't being applied in the USA that you won't lose your VPN possibly tomorrow.

Re: (Score:2)

by higuita ( 129722 )

no only that, netflix isn't whack-a-mole because they want, they MUST do that, to avoid being used by copyright holders and each country right owners for not doing enough. If Star wars transmission rights were sold to company X in country Y, netflix can't show any star wars content in that country without paying company X... by not actively controlling VPN, they are open they flank to a major lawsuit. But if they keep blocking IPs and track VPN usage, even if sued, they can claim they are trying to solve th

Re: (Score:2)

by thegarbz ( 1787294 )

No, because despite common Slashdot anti-wisdom Netflix actually know how networks work, and a brief help page designed for the common moron is not the same as the technical file written by engineers on how to implement the system.

Re: (Score:2)

by timeOday ( 582209 )

Inevitably though some legitimate use case will be blocked, and that grievance will be amplified x1000 by the press and social media (largely the same thing), the underlying reason being that people are mad about the block doing exactly what it is designed to do. Having something taken away is pretty infuriating, even if not having it in the first place wouldn't have been so bad.

Re: (Score:2)

by KlomDark ( 6370 )

LOL WUT?

Re: (Score:2)

by thegarbz ( 1787294 )

Well yeah. That's how trials work. You do them in your smaller markets first.

Re: (Score:2)

by suutar ( 1860506 )

It sounds like they're starting in a test market. The rules may change before going worldwide.

So it was a trial balloon (Score:4, Interesting)

by H3lldr0p ( 40304 )

People rightly expressed their discontent and Netflix probably saw a decline in membership because of it.

Now they're walking it back for their biggest market. Maybe they'll think twice before biting the hand which feeds them next time.

Re: (Score:2)

by gweihir ( 88907 )

> Maybe they'll think twice before biting the hand which feeds them next time.

Unlikely. Clearly Netflix has greedy stupid management at this time. That will kill them. It may now just take a bit longer.

Re: (Score:2)

by winphreak ( 915766 )

Everyone who did cancel already, knows it's going to happen. So you can ride out the inevitable, but otherwise it's just a warning sign. It's just out of touch management, nothing new.

I just checked (Score:2)

by NewtonsLaw ( 409638 )

I just checked the terms and conditions for using torrents to obtain your video entertainment... no such restrictions. Sounds like a clear winner to me :-)

I *am* a Netflix subscriber but as things get tougher it will be the first of my monthly costs to be ditched.

Re: (Score:2)

by RightSaidFred99 ( 874576 )

Same, but not because of this. Most of this carrying on about muh netflix password sharing is entitled shitheads who just want free stuff. And a lot of it is the Very Online who just think everyone will pirate instead, when 97% of netflix's customers aren't really technically capable of doing so.

The stuff I've seen doesn't look like that much of a problem, people whining over not being able to share the password around willy nilly because they'll have to do with occasional 2FA requests.

Re: (Score:1)

by Powercntrl ( 458442 )

You're right, but probably only because anyone who became tired of Netflix's bullshit already sailed off for the high seas when a price increase or loss of rights to a show was the final straw that broke the camel's back. The remaining subscribers are probably able to be pushed around a bit more before they finally say "fuck it" and just look for stuff to watch on the other major streaming platforms.

Re: (Score:2)

by RightSaidFred99 ( 874576 )

Thankfully, nobody needs netflix so it doesn't matter who can fucking afford it.

The "accident" is they pissed off their customers (Score:1)

by br1984 ( 9617674 )

Rules withdrawn for now and will be reposted later when the noise dies down, they hope. Consider telling your friendly Netflix online chat or phone support person how you feel, not about them, they're just doing their job, but about the fluckery FluckFlix is about to unleash on all the customers whose business and loyalty they treasure so much. Also tell them how busy their job is going to get when millions of travellers and other users flood them with much love as they find out they've been locked out of

Re: (Score:2)

by gweihir ( 88907 )

Well, I called it a suicide-plan. Seems I was right on the money. Not that I expect "management" at Netflix is smart enough to see where they went wrong and learn from it. They will just delay that suicide a bit longer. Next time they will not get outrage and probably will thing everything is fine. But they will get people not extending their subscriptions instead and a lot of them.

We'll see about that, (Score:3)

by unami ( 1042872 )

it's not that unlikely that they'll also try that in other countries. I share my password with 3 other people from my family who don't live with me, because to none of us it has enough value for paying 18 euros every month for a 4k subscription. I'm just not going to pay that much for a single household. I'd even think very hard about it for 7-8 euros a month, and I'm probably the one of us four who's most likely to spend money on a streaming service. So, good luck with cracking down on passwort sharing, netflix - I doubt it's worth it and people probably won't come back that fast, even if they lower those restrictions (or the price) again.

Re: (Score:2)

by thegarbz ( 1787294 )

> it's not that unlikely that they'll also try that in other countries.

Not sure what you mean by this. "not that unlikely" is what I would say about a process that Netflix has openly said they are trialling in some smaller countries first. If the trial is a success there's a 100% chance it will be expanded. Not "not that unlikely", but rather "damn certain".

Re: (Score:2)

by RightSaidFred99 ( 874576 )

It'll work for them. They'll have to cut costs and offer better plans. Instead of $25 or whatever they charge a month for 4 screens, they'll charge, say, $19 for 2 screens or some shit and still come out ahead. They just have to find the balance.

Nextflix Regrets (Score:5, Funny)

by Your Anus ( 308149 )

Giving you warning about an upcoming policy change.

Private VPN (Score:2)

by Your Anus ( 308149 )

I wonder why it wouldn't work to run a private VPN host at your "regular household" to log into while you are on the road.

Re: (Score:2)

by RightSaidFred99 ( 874576 )

It would, for you and the other 1% of their customers who can and would do such a thing.

Sounds like a very bad plan (Score:2)

by fred6666 ( 4718031 )

We have two residences. Multiple persons in the family.

Why couldn't family member #1 watch Netflix at house #2 while family member #2 watches it at house #1?

And no, we don't watch on our tiny cell phones, and we are not bringing back every device at house #1 every month. So that plan wouldn't work for us anyways.

We pay for 4 concurrent streams. Just let us use them as we want from where we want.

Re: (Score:2)

by Fly Swatter ( 30498 )

I don't know, two residences would equal two accounts, shouldn't it?

They should just go to having a single user plan and family plan. Oh wait at least for phones the single user plan gets ripped off by comparison. Every time.

Re: (Score:2)

by drinkypoo ( 153816 )

> They should just go to having a single user plan and family plan.

Single device, n device, single household, multi household, per device? Why not all of the above, priced accordingly, prices subject to change? Sell people options.

Losing proposition (Score:2)

by Cpt_Kirks ( 37296 )

When they finally DO implement this in the US, they will lose more paying customers than there currently are leeches.

When they become a pain in the ass, I'm dropping them.

Re: (Score:2)

by awwshit ( 6214476 )

^This.

Netflix needs to understand their long time customers and who exactly helped them become what they are today. The moment I run into licensing issues is the moment I drop Netflix for good. I will tolerate zero bullshit.

Netflix: you won't leave us either way (Score:1)

by Powercntrl ( 458442 )

Burned a lot of karma it in the previous story for saying it in a snarky manner, but Netflix already got rid of everything worth watching. Anyone who is still sticking around after all the good stuff went to the other streaming services, and the prices still went up, is clearly a glutton for punishment.

If the massive loss of content wasn't enough to make someone click that "cancel" button, a nag because they're watching on their phone or laptop while away from home isn't going motivate them to cancel eithe

sharing and rotating (Score:2)

by MooseTick ( 895855 )

Currently, I pay for a steaming service and share it with 2 others that pay for different streaming services which they share with me. We all get all 3 services for the price of 1.

If those services start killing sharing, I suspect many will follow my plan. That will be to have each of those services about 4 month per year. I'll watch whatever is hot or interesting on each service, then cancel and move to the next every few months. It won't really bother me much but I can see it being a pain in those company

Re: (Score:2)

by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 )

> That will be to have each of those services about 4 month per year. I'll watch whatever is hot or interesting on each service, then cancel and move to the next every few months.

This is already what I do. The content I want to watch is scattered across too many streaming services, and each alone doesn't have enough worthwhile content to justify carrying it full time*. It is slightly annoying, but I'm rotating services every 3-4 months.

Right now the ones in the "not currently subscribed" category are Hulu, Disney+, and HBO Max. Those will rotate with Netflix and Peacock and a few others.

The only streaming services I keep all the time now are Amazon (I'm a Prime member - I wouldn't p

So they got some aggressive push-back? (Score:2)

by gweihir ( 88907 )

No surprise. They basically announced they would be fucking their customers. Most of these customers think that without password-sharing, what netflix has to offer is not worth the money. Hence restricting password-sharing means they would drive the price up to a level where they will lose a rather large part of their customers.

That they now claim this was an "error" is just the usual and obvious corporate lying.

Happening a lot (Score:2)

by WolfgangVL ( 3494585 )

This is the second high profile licensing oopsie in 30 days after the HASBRO/CoTC OGL.

A cynic would see the shareholders demand for MOAR bumping up against the reality that customers can and will leave a platform when abused.

A page outta Apple's playbook. (Score:2)

by Neander Thrall ( 10273294 )

Let's announce or admit something controversial, then when ppl get mad we'll pretend it was a leak of just an idea someone had, and not actually something that is intended or actively being planned. Actually, probably a LOT of companies or groups do that, and it's just more visible when Apple does it because the need reports on everything they say or do. In fairness.

I like to be fair to Apple because this site is full of rabid FATM fanboiz, paid iShills, apologists, and those who still see a multi-tril

Re: A page outta Apple's playbook. (Score:2)

by Neander Thrall ( 10273294 )

* the MEDIA reports... curse the lack of a preview button on mobile!

It's a fairly dumb approach (Score:2)

by argStyopa ( 232550 )

So I travel for biz and routinely use my Netflix to watch on the road. If I'm gone 32d at a stretch (which admittedly is rare), no more.

Yet the 250 students in a single dorm? Yeah, fine with sharing forever.

Time to terminate my Netflix Subscription! (Score:2)

by jerryjnormandin ( 1942378 )

Well it was a good run. It's time to terminate my Netflix Subscription. I think if 30% of the Netflix Subscribers cancel the issue of not sharing account with family and friends will be rectified.

now I have to teach my family how to VPN (Score:2)

by G00F ( 241765 )

Great, now I have the joy of teaching family members how to setup VPN.

In my case I hope their router/modem supports being a vpn server. How well does something like a virtual server running openwrt work for cleint serer stuff? and wireguard?

Or maybe I can use wireguard on a spare pi zero or two....

Man 1: Ask me the what the most important thing about telling a good joke is.

Man 2: OK, what is the most impo --

Man 1: ______TIMING!