Sharing Netflix, Rhapsody Passwords Soon Illegal
Tennessee lawmakers are looking to make it illegal to use a friend's or relative's login information to access services like Netflix and Rhapsody.
The Tennessean reports that local state lawmakers in Nashville are working to make it illegal to use a friend's login information to gain access to subscription-based services like Netflix and Rhapsody, even if the account holder has given permission to use the information. The bill has already been approved and now awaits the governor's signature to make it state law.
At the request of the music industry, the bill was originally intended to address hackers and thieves who sell login information by the bulk. But the new legislation also applies to people who use a friend's or relative's subscription. Sharing the information with family under the same roof (wife, children etc) is presumably safe, but handing the credentials out at a family reunion or college dorm party will likely get someone in legal trouble.
"What becomes not legal is if you send your user name and password to all your friends so they can get free subscriptions," said the bill's House sponsor, Rep. Gerald McCormick.
The new bill reportedly expands an existing law used to prosecute individuals who leave restaurants without paying for their meals, and those who steal cable television by leeching off neighbors or breaking into the main cable connection out by the road. When passed, the law will include "entertainment subscription services" under its legal blanket. It will also allow subscription services to contact the local law enforcement if they feel they're being illegally accessed.
Naturally Governor Bill Haslam is feeling the heat of the record industry given that Nashville is literally at the heart of country music. While he's expressed his support in reducing music piracy, as of Tuesday he had still not reviewed the bill. "I don't know enough about that legislation, but if it's combating that issue, I would be in favor of it," Haslam said.
Bill Ramsey, a Nashville lawyer who practices both entertainment law and criminal defense, told the Tennessean that he doubts the new law will be used to ban people in the same household from sharing subscriptions. He also said that small-scale violations including a few people would be hard to detect. "When you start going north of 10 people, a prosecutor might look and say, 'Hey, you knew it was stealing,'" Ramsey said.
Going after consumers sharing their subscriptions to other in-house family members would be stupid, if not damaging to the subscription-based ecosystem. Would that mean parents couldn't allow their children to watch episodes of Pokemon on Netflix, or listen to Yo Gabba Gabba CDs on Rhapsody? It's highly likely that the law will go after the college student who uses mom's Netflix account in the dorm while also handing out the login information to everyone he/she knows.
Once the bill is passed, the RIAA is hoping that other states will follow Tennessee's lead and update their theft-of-cable laws. The state will actually be the first to update its theft-of-cable laws "for the 21st century and address the new trend toward Internet delivery of entertainment."
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'given that Nashville is literally at the heart of country music."
-This is the wrong use of the word 'literally'. Unless country music is actually a living organism with a central blood pumping organ.
People in office have way to much time on there hands this is just crazy. Pretty soon theres gonna be laws as to when you can and cant go to the bathroom. At some point these law makers needs to take a look at old laws that are useless and stop trying to make new ones that are just pointless. I don't have netflix, or rhapsody but these companies need to stop trying to soak every penny out of people and let things go a bit, whats the point of having multiple netflix or rhapsody accounts in one house hold? There isn't one other then to just give a company more money, bottom line here is they should be happy people are paying for it verses stealing it. If i go buy a movie off the shelf from a store i can lend it out to anyone, any time, as many times as i want, should be the same concept with your subscription based services online......should have thought about that before offering free streaming......
If that's the case then we must stop teaching our kids the virtue of sharing because it will eventually get them sued.
Brilliant! College kids are loaded! They coulda sued me when I was in college, and they would've gotten a whole $12 out of it.
This will be impossible to enforce, infact prohibition was probably easier to enforce than this. It also would cost way too much money to actually go after the offenders. What are the police going to do? Go into you dorm and take statements from all your friends? No they have bigger fish to fry. Besides people who do much more serious offenses like piracy are 99% of the time not caught. Also what actually institutes how often or to whom you can actually give your info to? Couldn't you argue that your dorm is just like your family because you're all living under the same roof? Even if this is passed, it will never be enforced so no one should be concerned. Also, I love Netflix and would recommend it to anyone.
"I don't know enough about that legislation, but if it's combating that issue, I would be in favor of it,"
than he shouldnt have his job.
this kind of crap should be illegal, people who dont know the issue but pass judgment on it anyway.
if netflix doesn't want you to use the service you pay for because its suspecting people are "leaching" off of it, make it a policy to ban such accounts pending reviews.
this is the same problem that we have with any cp law that gets proposed. we get told that its only for cp, and you have to keep up appearances, so you cant vote against it, but the legal crap that it introduces effects a FAR wider range than anticipated (give a cop an inch, they take a mile) .
Petition/email your state lawmakers here
http://act.demandprogress.org/act/ [...] e%3Dauto-e
What about people who are sharing a wireless network? Isn't that a type of subscription service?
Playing a Radio too loud will soon become illegal.
The problem they don't see is Netflix only allows a certain number of devices on one account! DONE Fixed GET THE DAMN GOVERNMENT OUT OF IT!
Oh, the rating system is up and running. And just noticed the new and improved gallery. Both my gripes have been addressed. Way to go.
So if I go to a friend's house and want to watch a movie, is it illegal for me to log into my own account and watch it there? If not, how do they know where I am? They should just have a check on their server to only allow a single stream at a time per account, or possibly a max of 3 or so to allow multiple streams in one household. Either way, they wouldn't get large scale piracy that way.
'given that Nashville is literally at the heart of country music."-This is the wrong use of the word 'literally'. Unless country music is actually a living organism with a central blood pumping organ.
Actually, by definition, a heart can be "the innermost or central part of anything" so the use of the word "literally" was properly used in this case.
Netflix/Rhapsody should just make it that you can only be logged in at one location per id. If multiple people are trying to use the service with the same id, the previous user gets booted.
Once someone starts getting booted from their movie, they'll stop handing out their credentials. Problem solved; no court fees.
It is a move that can probably increase piracy. People want to pay, as long as companies aren't profiteering.
Netflix/Rhapsody should just make it that you can only be logged in at one location per id. If multiple people are trying to use the service with the same id, the previous user gets booted.Once someone starts getting booted from their movie, they'll stop handing out their credentials. Problem solved; no court fees.
This is what I dont get. Netflix has something in place such that you can only stream 1 thing on any given system, why not expand it to the username?
What happened to laws that protect the little guy. Even more money to big companies that don't deserve it with greedy CEOs, while regular everyday people are getting punished for wanting to save a buck.
Netflix seems to be getting some pretty bad press from this article. Are they even involved in pushing this law through or are they just being used as an example?
Actually, by definition, a heart can be "the innermost or central part of anything" so the use of the word "literally" was properly used in this case.
+20. Grammar Nazi needs more time in high school.
The content provider should just do a 3 strikes and your out for concurrent IP usages. Problem solved.
This court crap is just going to lead to people like little old ladies getting done by the RIAA just like that latest "Frog and Monkey" going around on utube. (We are the frogs)
Actually you can stream to five devices at a time with one login with netflix. At our house we have 3 Roku boxes, 2 BD players, 1 Xbox 360, an Apple TV and an iPad that all stream netflix. Not to mention the 2 desktops and 2 laptops. Between the kids and my wife and I we often have 3 or more going at the same time. Netflix offers this as a feature, as something you pay for, no one is taking advantage of them be streaming more than one show at a time. So how does the state make something illegal that the company offers itself and you are paying for the right to use in this manner. (I'm speaking about sharing a login throughout one house.)
Next up, C0mcast lobbies to make sharing cable and internet services within one household illegal. "It's only fair that each individual pays for their own service," states C0mcast spokesperson, "How else will we continue to profit without upgrading our service?"
I saw this line and that was enough.
Playing a radio too loud is already illegal. There are laws for noise violations. If your neighbor calls the police like mine did you can get a ticket.
Next you're going to be required to sell tickets to anybody that watches a movie with you... I bet some concerned lobbyists made some nice "campaign contributions" to those lawmakers, and there's about a 90% chance the ones leading the push for this bill are redneck republicans who are "agin' big gummit intra-fearing wif teh lives of private cit'zens"...
I'm sick of seeing laws like this... Governments need to be small, and businesses need to quit robbing their customers.
It's all very nice that so many think Netflix and Rhapsody should solve this problem themselves and are confused as to why the government would be involved. The government is involved because they want to incarcerate and rob you. The legislation in question has already passed here in Tennessee, home of the Corrections Corporation of America, a for-profit company that builds and maintains prisons across the country. And the more people run through the judicial system, the more they and the local government make. The maximum punishment will be 1 year in prison (so the CCA gets their money) and a $2500 fine, which is in addition to court cost (which can run anywhere from $80 to $1500, so the local government gets a pretty sizable chunk as well). Why are they doing this? Because you are the enemy. Wake up and boycott.
It's all very nice that so many think Netflix and Rhapsody should solve this problem themselves and are confused as to why the government would be involved. The government is involved because they want to incarcerate and rob you. The legislation in question has already passed here in Tennessee, home of the Corrections Corporation of America, a for-profit company that builds and maintains prisons across the country. And the more people run through the judicial system, the more they and the local government make. The maximum punishment will be 1 year in prison (so the CCA gets their money) and a $2500 fine, which is in addition to court cost (which can run anywhere from $80 to $1500, so the local government gets a pretty sizable chunk as well). Why are they doing this? Because you are the enemy. Wake up and boycott.
"Sharing the information with family under the same roof (wife, children etc) is presumably safe"
Only because of lack of evidence. According to the law, it sounds like it's technically going to illegal.
"Pretty soon theres gonna be laws as to when you can and cant go to the bathroom."
"Playing a Radio too loud will soon become illegal."
If you actually think about it reasonably, slippery slope arguments like these really have no validity here. Just because the government wants to pass a law protecting businesses from a certain kind of fraud does not mean that the next step is an Orwellian dystopia where everything you do is subject to excessive regulation and monitoring.
It's not like there is no reasoning behind this law: If many people were to just use the same login/password without paying the subscription fees (except for the one lone person who originally started it), and there were no consequence, Netflix could lose a lot of money. I personally don't think a law is necessary, as Netflix should be able to control this by watching out for concurrent streams by a bunch of different IP addresses using the same login and then taking there own steps such as canceling accounts.
Netflix already handles this. Only two streams are allowed at a time on our account.
You're an idiot if you give out the account info to anyone outside of your immediate family. You'll soon find out others are watching and you can't because the two streams are in use. What do you do then? Call all your friends and ask them to get off? What happens when a friend of a friend of a friend decides to change the password on the account?
There really isn't a need for these kinds of laws. Netflix can impose these limits by having it in the mandatory subscriber agreement.