Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Netflix to start testing warnings for people borrowing login info

gammawire.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 180 posts

Re: Netflix to start testing warnings for people borrowing login info

#71

Post by 4ggr0 »

eCa wrote: post #57
4ggr0 wrote: post #13

The Netflix I pay for is currently used by: Me, Mom, Dad, Grandparents, GF, GFs Mom. Other than myself and my GF, most of the people on this list watch something on Netflix every couple of months, when I or someone/something else recommend them a movie or show. I don't want them to use my profile, because we then obviously can't watch the same things, and it'll break my recommendations. I get why Netflix wants to spl…

From that use case, what is likely to happen is everyone having their own account but being more active in canceling and rejoining. I doubt Netflix revenue will increase to much above $240 in the end.

Probably, yeah. At least my grandparents and my mom would probably not get their own accounts.

Re: Netflix to start testing warnings for people borrowing login info

#72

Post by dahart »

Nextgrid wrote: post #3

This just gives piracy yet another advantage. The article clearly mentions that credentials sharing is currently used as a mitigation to the balkanization of streaming services, allowing the cost of all major subscriptions to be spread across several people, essentially bringing down the per-person cost to a reasonable, single subscription's cost. Cracking down on this doesn't mean people will start paying, they will…

How is using someone else’s account not piracy?

Re: Netflix to start testing warnings for people borrowing login info

#73

Post by dahart »

seneca wrote: post #50
gt565k wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? Their content is far better than any of their competitors. I have no idea what you're talking about. They've been pumping out amazing original series and movies.

Going to have to respectfully disagree. There's no accounting for taste, but I haven't made it through a full episode of a Netflix original since House of Cards, barring series they bought and labeled originals. I consider their original content very bottom of the barrel.

What’s better content that also allows account sharing from different locations?

Re: Netflix to start testing warnings for people borrowing login info

#74

Post by tw04 »

whatok wrote: post #62
tw04 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Netflix has borrowed billions (and billions) of dollars to get where they are. As a private entity they've gone bust seven or eight years ago. Netflix has been profitable since at least 2005... they may not have grown as quickly, but I'd need some data to back up the claim they'd be bankrupt without billions in investment. https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/NFLX/netflix/gross... >but Netflix's terms literally…

Netflix would not remotely resemble its current form and likely would have been acquired years ago if they did not pivot to their own content. Switching to their own content required and still requires huge amounts of money; est. 17bn last year[0]. Additionally, the gross profit number is a flawed number for many reasons; try looking at operating or net income or anything farther down the income statement from basic…

>Netflix would not remotely resemble its current form and likely would have been acquired years ago if they did not pivot to their own content.

You can't acquire a private company unless they're willing to sell.

>Switching to their own content required and still requires huge amounts of money; est. 17bn last year[0].

I don't follow your point? Private companies can take a loan just as easily as public. If they were unable to attain the financing they wanted, they'd still have plenty of their own content, just not as much.

>Additionally, the gross profit number is a flawed number for many reasons; try looking at operating or net income or anything farther down the income statement from basic revenue. Netflix has no option but to finance content spend with debt as they do not generate enough FCF to cover content spend and will quickly fall behind competitors if they don't.

I'd suggest you do the same. Their cash balance increased from $5 billion to $8 billion last year. They took out "debt" to finance their movies because money is cheap right now. Nothing they've done required them being a public company, and nothing you've shown makes me believe they couldn't be in exactly the same position they currently are as a private company. They didn't even start borrowing money of significance until 2012, I still don't believe for a second they'd be "bankrupt" as a a private company.

https://stockanalysis.com/stocks/nflx/financials/balance-she...

Re: Netflix to start testing warnings for people borrowing login info

#75

Post by chucky »

larrik wrote: post #17
chucky wrote: post #10

As part of a single person household it feels weird that there is a norm that you are allowed to share logins "within your household". Effectively this means people in the same household are paying a lower price than others - so people living in single households are effectively subsidizing that usage by paying more per person.

Are you saying if you have a wife and kid you should pay 3x the price?

I wouldn't put it like that. I would say that each user using Netflix should pay the same amount. So you pay for yourself, your wife pays for herself, and your kid pays for themselves.

Sure, it's 3 times more than what you pay today. But you are 3 times as many people as I am, so why shouldn't you?

Re: Netflix to start testing warnings for people borrowing login info

#76

Post by 4ggr0 »

dahart wrote: post #72
Nextgrid wrote: post #3

This just gives piracy yet another advantage. The article clearly mentions that credentials sharing is currently used as a mitigation to the balkanization of streaming services, allowing the cost of all major subscriptions to be spread across several people, essentially bringing down the per-person cost to a reasonable, single subscription's cost. Cracking down on this doesn't mean people will start paying, they will…

How is using someone else’s account not piracy?

If you can't share accounts, why can you create a seemingly unlimited amount of profiles?

Re: Netflix to start testing warnings for people borrowing login info

#77

Post by mannerheim »

sandworm101 wrote: post #49
4ggr0 wrote: post #13

The Netflix I pay for is currently used by: Me, Mom, Dad, Grandparents, GF, GFs Mom. Other than myself and my GF, most of the people on this list watch something on Netflix every couple of months, when I or someone/something else recommend them a movie or show. I don't want them to use my profile, because we then obviously can't watch the same things, and it'll break my recommendations. I get why Netflix wants to spl…

I think that you are upset about the subscription model not serving your use case. Pay-per-view is probably more appropriate for those who only want to watch a couple movies every month, put ppv isn't available. Customers instead share their accounts with family members. It is dirty rotten piracy and anyone doing it is stealing bread from the mouths of babes, but that's what happens when the legitimate system fails t…

Hm, that's bizarre, I can watch Amazon Prime on Linux.

Re: Netflix to start testing warnings for people borrowing login info

#78

Post by chucky »

bidirectional wrote: post #30
chucky wrote: post #10

As part of a single person household it feels weird that there is a norm that you are allowed to share logins "within your household". Effectively this means people in the same household are paying a lower price than others - so people living in single households are effectively subsidizing that usage by paying more per person.

Almost everything is cheaper for multiple people living as a unit. Wait until you find out people with partners effectively have their rent halved.

Not sure why you are using such a condescending tone, but I do understand how rent and the costs of living work.

The difference is that if I brought another person into my home then yes, we could split the rent, but it would also halve the amount of living space per person.

Re: Netflix to start testing warnings for people borrowing login info

#79

Post by RHSeeger »

fishtacos wrote: post #56
RHSeeger wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is it that you think is appropriate for you to be pissed off about? You pay for Netflix for you and your household, not for anyone that happens to be related to you. Has that ever not been the case?

Perhaps because they've doubled their streaming service's cost, reduced their content amount and availability, and are now properly warning they are going to be cracking down on geographically distant usage by users of the same account. At this point I'm paying 20 USD/m for Netflix, roommate for HBOMax, friend's password (via reciprocal sharing) for Disney+, and our online TV service, which my elderly disabled mother…

> geographically distant usage by users of the same account

But that's just it. A Netflix account isn't valid "for you and anyone you think it is". It's valid only for people in the same household. The thing they are cracking down on is people using the account in a way that they were never supposed to.

Re: Netflix to start testing warnings for people borrowing login info

#80

Post by woodrowbarlow »

mannerheim wrote: post #77
sandworm101 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that you are upset about the subscription model not serving your use case. Pay-per-view is probably more appropriate for those who only want to watch a couple movies every month, put ppv isn't available. Customers instead share their accounts with family members. It is dirty rotten piracy and anyone doing it is stealing bread from the mouths of babes, but that's what happens when the legitimate system fails t…

Hm, that's bizarre, I can watch Amazon Prime on Linux.

you have (or your distro has) installed the widevine drm plugins for firefox (or whatever browser) that are included by default on windows and mac os. these are proprietary plugins, but some convenience-oriented distros distros include them because many users expect them.

some linux users are on linux because they want to eliminate proprietary software from their computer altogether. which means no access to un-broken drm media.

Post reply on HN