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Video subscription content password sharing warning

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MrMobodies:
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/showbiz-tv/warning-issued-anybody-uk-netflix-25812864

--- Quote ---Warning issued to anybody in UK with Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or Disney Plus account
Millions are breaking the law by sharing passwords - after it was ruled yesterday password sharing was ILLEGAL
By James Rodger Content Editor 06:48, 22 DEC 2022

A warning has been issued to anybody with a Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or Disney Plus account in the UK. Millions are breaking the law by sharing passwords - after it was ruled yesterday password sharing was ILLEGAL.

The Intellectual Property Office (IPO), which has published the new guidance in conjunction with the Facebook and Instagram owner Meta, has issued the ruling. “Piracy is a major issue for the entertainment and creative industries,” the IPO said.

“** Pasting internet images into your social media without permission, or accessing films, TV series or live sports events through Kodi boxes, hacked Fire Sticks or apps without paying a subscription is an infringement of copyright and you may be committing a crime.” It warned anybody “accessing … without paying a subscription” is breaking the law.

It is a criminal and civil offence, it said. It warned anybody breaking the rules could theoretically face prosecution over doing so. “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,” an IPO spokesperson said.

“These provisions may include breach of contractual terms, fraud or secondary copyright infringement, depending on the circumstances. Where these provisions are provided in civil law, it would be up to the service provider to take action through the courts if required.”

Chengyi Long, Netflix’s director of product innovation, said Netflix has “always made it easy for people who live together to share their Netflix account”, allowing people to create separate profiles on a single subscription. But, “* accounts are being shared between households – impacting our ability to invest in great new TV and films for our members,” Long said.

“Media companies have had a fabulous distribution system for decades,” Tom Rutledge, chief executive of Charter Communication, a major US cable company, told CNBC in 2020. He warned: “It’s just too easy to get the product without paying for it.”
--- End quote ---

I wonder how they are going to enforce this and by what detection method for things like simply sharing a password.

You may have some with many slow multiple broadband lines through connection sharing where some kind of balancing by connection is taking place that may appear randomly from those different connections or IP addresses and they might suspect "content from x account is being accessed from multiple connections" and possible has the password shared.

Some years ago I was trying to compare a scene out of two movies with Amazon Prime but a message that multiple playback was detect and one of the players stopped so they couldn't watch content at the same time as someone else on that platform.

*What if it was a large families with grandparents living in different properties and the children move between them and the parents property where the parents pay for everybody. What if they have many houses?

**I thought that fair use allows users to share time limited parts of the videos when doing reviews and commentary.

SeanB:
Trying to get more subscribers, as sharing a password in a single household is allowed, but sharing when not living under the same roof is not, so they are trying to get those to buy their own plan.

the one local provider tried this, the backlash they got from limiting to one device only was considerable, especially as often this blocked the only device streaming, the actual set top box they supplied, and also stopped a lot of smart TV sets ( yes an oxymoron, a display should just be a dumb thing that handles a stream coming in, not needing to have updates, but a sweparate box which can be changed) from supporting the app on them.

ebastler:

--- Quote from: MrMobodies on December 25, 2022, 06:21:12 am ---[...] it was ruled yesterday password sharing was ILLEGAL
[...] The Intellectual Property Office (IPO), which has published the new guidance in conjunction with the Facebook and Instagram owner Meta, has issued the ruling.

--- End quote ---

Don't tell me that everybody in the UK had assumed until now that sharing the password to a streaming account was legal?? There was no "new ruling" from the IPO; they just published a guidance document reminding people of the existing laws and T&Cs of streaming providers. (With kind support from their friendly lobbyist next door, Meta, which I find quite remarkable.)


--- Quote ---You may have some with many slow multiple broadband lines through connection sharing where some kind of balancing by connection is taking place that may appear randomly from those different connections or IP addresses and they might suspect "content from x account is being accessed from multiple connections" and possible has the password shared.

--- End quote ---

That seems a bit far-fetched. Have you ever seen this in the real world?

mendip_discovery:
I gave up doing event photography a few years back as every time I published my photos online they would just be lifted and shared on FB[1]. If I asked FB to take them down I would he branded the Assh*le for doing so, at the same time it has created a internet that doesn't quite get copyright.

But back to the subject of sharing passwords I would love to see this go to court as that is the real test. Netflix etc will soon end up as bad as the Sky service, pay a expensive price and still have to endure adverts. I was quite surprised that the online tv providers haven't been covered by Ofcom/BBFC/ofwatch etc so they stuff they publish wouldn't necessarily be allowed on UK TV. Netflix etc have been ok with sharing for years as it got people hooked on it, many would go onto buy thier own service as they liked it but the investors want money, money is power so we are seeing the lawyers gearing up for those stupid lawsuits again, just like the early 2000.

How do they know you have multiple addresses. Well each unit has a fingerprint, they will compare that to its IP/provider, as A only access it from this device at this IP but then B uses a different device on a different IP at the same time but always from a different IP then they are never at the same address.

[1] some would just take a photo of a computer screen. So no amount if java would stop them. There were even some that would remove the water marks I had put on.

MrMobodies:

--- Quote from: ebastler on December 25, 2022, 07:13:57 am ---
That seems a bit far-fetched. Have you ever seen this in the real world?
--- End quote ---

I don't feel at the moment for some time now that I am living in the real world and so far behind with everything.

I know someone who told me last year about their friend, that one day OpenReeach vans turned up in their village, not replace the ageing adsl 1, with FTTC or FTTP but to disconnect the landlines (analogue voice portion) and giving them VOIP phones to connect to their router. Apparently he didn't like it as it kept on cutting out. When the children are using the broadband no chance of making or taking calls and he said mobile signal is poor there too.

Yes, I have. I am using a Pfsense router with two VDSL FTTC lines (2x8 static ips one for the gateways apart of the deal) no FTTP available yet as it is the countryside and a 4g backup modem connected to the pfsense plaftorm. In 2015 I had what I have got now before I moved.

I had been in places some years ago where  ADSL 1, 4mbps is all they had and fibre to the cabinet was not available but for the same price in one shop Talktalkbusiness offered 4 adsl lines for the price they were paying for one until FTTC became available and I set it up with connection sharing and it helped a little but only does it by connection.

Quite unrealistic from what I was expecting in this day and age. I was told FTTP would be in this village last year. It was cabled far up the road cabled up but not still not operational for a year according to someone I know and they are building new houses further up

Maybe it may change shortly where they'd have to.

I see quite a few people last year could only get 30mbps fortunately there was some  available slots/capacity 80mbps just on moving and I am getting about 60 to 70mbps download. Nothing exciting which is why I have two expecially when I am living with many who may need the bandwidth.



--- Quote from: mendip_discovery on December 25, 2022, 08:26:21 am ---[1] some would just take a photo of a computer screen. So no amount if java would stop them. There were even some that would remove the water marks I had put on.
--- End quote ---

If they dare put channel logos up as similar to what they do on terrestrial Freeview television channels then they loose my custom. So many channels but I can't tolerate logos during movies and I tend to get distracted very easily.

I remembered last decade there was this TV viewer that I found a lot more stable than Huappuage's own Wintv viewer for this tv tuner I had and it was called Dscaler and that had a configurable logo/watermark killer https://deinterlace.sourceforge.net/dscaler4.htm that could be adjusted in size, colours and moved around and can be set to blend in with the surroundings. There were 4 channels and channel 5 started to doing then the rest followed with only 3 left but I don't bother with terrestrial anymore. The only thing I see is the news and it isn't nice.

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