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Sharing Your Netflix Account

help.netflix.com

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Re: Sharing Your Netflix Account

#171

Post by tptacek »

torstenvl wrote: post #167
tptacek wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People keep saying that Netflix explicitly promoted account sharing. Netflix has been telegraphing that they were going to clamp down on password sharing for years. Nobody can pretend they didn't see this coming. I dispute that a random social media manager joke tweet from 6 years ago is dispositive of anything, but even if it was, you've had over 2 years to cancel your account if you find this outrageous. This is on…

Dude. I'm not a Netflix subscriber and I haven't been for some time. Stop trying to make things personal, it's against the site guidelines and it's ugly behavior besides. This isn't "on me" and has nothing to do with me. This has to do with Netflix getting greedy and jumping the shark.

Sorry, I'm addressing the whole thread, not just you in particular. It's not personal, but I could have written more carefully.

Re: Sharing Your Netflix Account

#172

Post by tptacek »

ZeroCool2u wrote: post #164
tptacek wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the subtext is: you don't have a problem. You have a single-household Netflix account. You're the kind of account Netflix likes.

I'm not sure I agree. If the choices are: I can keep my account and downgrade my plan and then pay for a separate account for my Mom, then they would make about the same or even less money. They certainly won't be getting any ad revenue from either account. I can cancel my account outright and get my content through alternative methods where Netflix is not compensated. It seems to me the choice is obvious here and th…

If your mom is the only user, what is the difference to you?

Re: Sharing Your Netflix Account

#173

Post by tptacek »

neogodless wrote: post #170
tptacek wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As Netflix is making clear, you're not paying for 4 households to use their service, but rather 4 devices within the household. There's a lot of gaslighting going on here: in the main, people who were sharing their Netflix accounts with their parents, siblings across town (cough), LDRs, and kids at college knew they were stretching the limits of what these services intended. If they weren't, there wouldn't be a name…

Correct. Netflix is making it clear that while they created a 4K, 4-stream plan, and millions subscribed to it, they've changed the terms to add physical geography limitations to an internet content plan. They've changed the terms, and people on the wrong end of that change are unhappy with the change, with good reason. It's not gaslighting to have situations where you pay for something under terms of a contract, and…

Since at least 2019, Netflix has been saying they were going to crack down on password sharing. People who truly believed Netflix was offering them a four household plan for $20/mo have had over 3 years to cancel. Personally, I don't think anybody reasonably believed that was what the plan meant, but either way.

Of course the new enforcement is worse for everybody who was exploiting it this way. Any enforcement would be worse for somebody.

Re: Sharing Your Netflix Account

#174

Post by fragmede »

I wonder, given the website interface on a laptop (ie not the smartphone app) how they're going to detect when someone's VPN'd into home using, eg, Tailscale. Traffic is going to look like it's coming from home and, except for ping times, which could be blamed on bad wireless interference, seems like it would be undetectable to Netflix.

Re: Sharing Your Netflix Account

#175

Post by andsoitis »

athorax wrote: post #165
andsoitis wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not their goal. Their goal is for accounts to map to households. When I marry someone or live with someone, we're the same household.

I think that is overly charitable. Their goal is to maximize profits and provide their shareholders with value.

And the way to do it is to commission great content that many people around the world with varying tastes want to pay for.

If people are watching but not paying, then there's less money to invest in new, exciting content so subscribers get screwed.

Re: Sharing Your Netflix Account

#176

Post by lalopalota »

tptacek wrote: post #48
shankr wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am in a LDR and hence have a shared account. I also do spend significant amount of time away from my primary location. This is just going to be annoying.

If you're in a long distance relationship, you're in two different households, and need two different accounts. Before there was Netflix, there was cable TV; did you expect to share that with your significant other? What other services do you share cross-country that way?

> What other services do you share cross-country that way?

Email, phone, password manager, ... any other internet based service.

Netflix is not like cable. Cable is provided by a physical wire connected to one location. Netflix is delivered over any internet connection. If I pay to have multi-device access, it should not matter where those devices are located.

Re: Sharing Your Netflix Account

#177

Post by tzs »

gary_0 wrote: post #98
BulgarianIdiot wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So your thesis is that piracy is cheaper. Ok thanks.

"Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem." - Gabe Newell, 10+ years ago Once upon a time, Netflix itself was considered the case in point! Then video streaming splintered into a dozen services and now Netflix has decided to make things even more complicated. People don't learn, I guess.

> "Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem." - Gabe Newell, 10+ years ago

Yet nearly everyone complaining here today about Netflix is complaining about the price.

Re: Sharing Your Netflix Account

#178

Post by xhkkffbf »

gary_0 wrote: post #98
BulgarianIdiot wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So your thesis is that piracy is cheaper. Ok thanks.

"Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem." - Gabe Newell, 10+ years ago Once upon a time, Netflix itself was considered the case in point! Then video streaming splintered into a dozen services and now Netflix has decided to make things even more complicated. People don't learn, I guess.

The anti-artists love to suggest that this is true, but all payment includes some kind of speed bump. Are shoplifters not thieves, but merely protesters against the drag of waiting for a checkout lane? Are rapists just men who are experiencing a "service problem" from women? Pretty much every crime can be rationalized with this pro-privacy cant.

If you want artists in this world, you must support them. If you don't, be honest and don't complain about service.

Re: Sharing Your Netflix Account

#179

Post by ryandrake »

tptacek wrote: post #153
neogodless wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does a "roof" have to do with internet content you pay for? Answer: nothing! Their 4k plan wording: "Watch on 4 supported devices at a time" OK - I pay them, we use up to 4 supported devices at a time. End of story! What's next, you can't get a 4-line cell phone plan unless all 4 lines are "under the same roof"? Makes just about the same amount of sense! The "live together" limitation is being added for "busines…

As Netflix is making clear, you're not paying for 4 households to use their service, but rather 4 devices within the household. There's a lot of gaslighting going on here: in the main, people who were sharing their Netflix accounts with their parents, siblings across town (cough), LDRs, and kids at college knew they were stretching the limits of what these services intended. If they weren't, there wouldn't be a name…

"Household" seems to be such an arbitrary and fuzzy line to draw. What's a household? If I live in a duplex with my extended family living in the unit next to me, should I be able to share an account with them? They're under the same roof, but with a different address. What about people living in a guest house? Same property address, different roof. What about roommates living in the same house, with a single living room? What about roommates living in the same house, but in an entirely separate living space on another floor? What about a communal dorm that shares kitchen/bathroom facilities among many students, but have separate sleeping spaces? Does it matter if the roommates are related or unrelated?

If any of these make a difference, why does Netflix care where your walls and roof are, or what the layout of your home is, or who's living with who?

Re: Sharing Your Netflix Account

#180

Post by tzs »

mminer237 wrote: post #39
malfist wrote: post #3

What's the point of having a tier for sharing an account if you can't....share your account?

There isn't a tier for sharing it outside your household. There are different screen tiers, so one person can be watching upstairs, one can be watching downstairs, and one can be watching on the bus, etc. But they're all supposed to live together.

What's very annoying is that that those are also the max resolution tiers. It is the 1 screen max 720p tier, the 2 screen 1080p max tier, and the 4 screen 4K UHD tier.

The resolution I want and the number of screens I want are almost completely independent, so it is annoying to me that they don't have plans that decouple them.

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