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Tennessee Makes it Illegal To Share Your Netflix Password

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Re: Tennessee Makes it Illegal To Share Your Netflix Password

#61

Post by alex_c »

cruise02 wrote: post #57
RyanMcGreal wrote: post #47

In other news, the lawnmowing industry has successfully lobbied the state government to pass a groundbreaking law making it a criminal offence to loan your lawnmower to a neighbour. The practice of lawnmowersharing is claimed, according to an industry-funded study, to cost the industry $10 billion a year in lost revenue. "Now that everyone who wants to enjoy a mowed lawn has to come clean and buy or rent their own la…

The scenarios you're describing seem a lot more like libraries loaning out physical copies of books, each of which can only be used by one person at a time. I think loaning out your NetFlix password is more akin to cable theft than to loaning out physical objects. If you're giving out your password to all of your friends, you're basically acting as a content distributor. Still, I see no reason why this needs to be a…

If you're making that distinction, then "theft" is probably not the right word to use.

Re: Tennessee Makes it Illegal To Share Your Netflix Password

#62

Post by jrockway »

generalk wrote: post #20
markwweaver wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article does say that it is mostly to combat people harvesting and selling large number of accounts/passwords which seems reasonable to me. It is scary that they could go after people sharing with a friend with up to a year in jail though.

> The article does say that it is mostly to combat people > harvesting and selling large number of accounts/passwords > which seems reasonable to me. It seems reasonable that there be a law against that? Reasonable: Netflix TOS allows them to terminate your account if you're found in violation. Unreasonable: TN law allows criminal charges to be brought against you, potentially incurring fines and jail time and almost…

We really need help from the Republicans here. They passed laws so that any time someone wants to do something useful with taxpayer money (build infrastructure, provide government services), the first step becomes a 10-year-long "alternatives analysis" stage. We need the same thing for new laws. As an example, before this law can take effect, we need to decide exactly how much it will cost to investigate, prosecute, and imprison violators. And, we need to decide where that money is going to become from? Should we legalize child rape to free up those investigators to go after Netflix ToS violations? If yes, then make it a law. If no, then let Netflix worry about its own profits.

Re: Tennessee Makes it Illegal To Share Your Netflix Password

#63

Post by markkanof »

impendia wrote: post #17

"Republican Gov. Bill Haslam [who signed the bill] told reporters earlier this week that he wasn't familiar with the details of the legislation, but..." I feel like this says it all.

This is really all too common. You always hear politicians say things like "Well I'm not familiar with that issue specifically...so many pieces of legislation pass by my desk I really can't review them all." It's true that you can't expect one person to comprehend every issue at a deep level. But politicians shouldn't be rubber stamping things just to build up enough "credits" to get their next piece of legislation passed through.

Re: Tennessee Makes it Illegal To Share Your Netflix Password

#64

Post by cruise02 »

alex_c wrote: post #61
cruise02 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The scenarios you're describing seem a lot more like libraries loaning out physical copies of books, each of which can only be used by one person at a time. I think loaning out your NetFlix password is more akin to cable theft than to loaning out physical objects. If you're giving out your password to all of your friends, you're basically acting as a content distributor. Still, I see no reason why this needs to be a…

If you're making that distinction, then "theft" is probably not the right word to use.

They're not stealing from the person who loaned them the password, but "theft" is definitely the right word.

Re: Tennessee Makes it Illegal To Share Your Netflix Password

#65

Post by zacharypinter »

chopsueyar wrote: post #28
zacharypinter wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While this doesn't necessarily make the bill unreasonable, I'd say there are much better market approaches. For example, Netflix limits the number of devices you can connect, logs what you watched, and uses your watching habits for recommendations. So, if I were to share my account with others, they'd see everything I watched and anything they watch would alter my recommendations. For those reasons alone, I keep my N…

So up to a year in jail is not unreasonable?

Hah! While trying not to pick a fight with the comment I was replying to, I ended up picking another fight. Guess I can't win :)

Re: Tennessee Makes it Illegal To Share Your Netflix Password

#66

Post by alexqgb »

chopsueyar wrote: post #25
ck2 wrote: post #3

How on earth would people legally sell netflix passwords in bulk anyway? This was something that needed to be addressed on the state level because no other laws were being broken in the process? But spam is okay? The lobbyist force these industries have must be insanely powerful and expensive. Well, one more law that the people arresting and judging you are probably breaking themselves or their kids are. I'm pretty s…

The lobbyist force these industries have must be insanely powerful and expensive. Is Tennessee really the most expensive legislature to buy?

Not sure, but it is home to Nashville, which has become the epicenter of recorded music in America.

Re: Tennessee Makes it Illegal To Share Your Netflix Password

#67

Post by [deleted] »

cruise02 wrote: post #57
RyanMcGreal wrote: post #47

In other news, the lawnmowing industry has successfully lobbied the state government to pass a groundbreaking law making it a criminal offence to loan your lawnmower to a neighbour. The practice of lawnmowersharing is claimed, according to an industry-funded study, to cost the industry $10 billion a year in lost revenue. "Now that everyone who wants to enjoy a mowed lawn has to come clean and buy or rent their own la…

The scenarios you're describing seem a lot more like libraries loaning out physical copies of books, each of which can only be used by one person at a time. I think loaning out your NetFlix password is more akin to cable theft than to loaning out physical objects. If you're giving out your password to all of your friends, you're basically acting as a content distributor. Still, I see no reason why this needs to be a…

[deleted]

Re: Tennessee Makes it Illegal To Share Your Netflix Password

#68

Post by iforgot »

cruise02 wrote: post #64
alex_c wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're making that distinction, then "theft" is probably not the right word to use.

They're not stealing from the person who loaned them the password, but "theft" is definitely the right word.

Theft results in a perment loss. Tresspassing is probably much more apt.

But, from the perspective of the online services there is a simple real world analogy that actually happens. Having 10+ people live in the same rented appartment. The lanlord is being paid, but his costs are larger than a single renter due to an increased useage of the property. Still, netflix is probably not the proponents of this law it's all about the RIAA and MPAA who hate the idea of unlimited content on the cheap.

Re: Tennessee Makes it Illegal To Share Your Netflix Password

#69

Post by jimbobimbo »

cruise02 wrote: post #57
RyanMcGreal wrote: post #47

In other news, the lawnmowing industry has successfully lobbied the state government to pass a groundbreaking law making it a criminal offence to loan your lawnmower to a neighbour. The practice of lawnmowersharing is claimed, according to an industry-funded study, to cost the industry $10 billion a year in lost revenue. "Now that everyone who wants to enjoy a mowed lawn has to come clean and buy or rent their own la…

The scenarios you're describing seem a lot more like libraries loaning out physical copies of books, each of which can only be used by one person at a time. I think loaning out your NetFlix password is more akin to cable theft than to loaning out physical objects. If you're giving out your password to all of your friends, you're basically acting as a content distributor. Still, I see no reason why this needs to be a…

Don't Netflix servers block you from accessing content from different devices using same credentials simultaneously? That's pretty much a library situation.

Re: Tennessee Makes it Illegal To Share Your Netflix Password

#70

Post by cruise02 »

iforgot wrote: post #68
cruise02 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not stealing from the person who loaned them the password, but "theft" is definitely the right word.

Theft results in a perment loss. Tresspassing is probably much more apt. But, from the perspective of the online services there is a simple real world analogy that actually happens. Having 10+ people live in the same rented appartment. The lanlord is being paid, but his costs are larger than a single renter due to an increased useage of the property. Still, netflix is probably not the proponents of this law it's all…

I don't want to split hairs, but if I steal cable for a month, the cable company permanently loses the money I should have paid for a month of cable. Just because they don't lose the 1s and 0s they're selling doesn't mean there's no permanent loss.

My apartment has a rental agreement about how many people are allowed to live there. If I break the agreement by allowing ten friends to live there I lose my apartment. If I loan my NetFlix password to ten friends, I see no reason why they shouldn't just terminate my account.

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