Are they actually blocking extra users, or is this just the precursor?
Update on Sharing
61–70 of 325 posts
Re: Update on Sharing
#62I really dislike how every corporate communication regarding an “update” now means “here’s how we’re making things worse for you.” I know honesty has never really been the fundamental value of public relations initiatives, but it would be refreshing to occasionally see a company saying that they’re putting the squeeze on customers because they need to protect their margins or even just because they can. The formerly-…
Somehow I find “clarifications” which rescind an obviously boneheaded move to be more annoying. At least the bad-update isn’t an attempt to totally gaslight us.
Re: Update on Sharing
#63I don't understand their logic.
First: you can subscribe to n simultaneous streams/downloads. Ours is 2, and sometimes the kids complain, and end up sorting it out somehow.*
Second: if you have a kid at college, they "live at home" for various other mechanisms (count as a dependent for taxation; qualify for parents' health insurance, can vote in their home district regardless of where they live; can be part of a family phone plan, family apple plan, etc etc...)
* And third: they don't seem to argue about netflix much any more; I think if I dropped the sub to a single session everybody would still be fine. Netflix seems to have an increasing density of junk content, losing its distinguished position.
Re: Update on Sharing
#64If I'm nomadic and live in a different "household" every 1-3 months... Do I have any options?!
Re: Update on Sharing
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
The idea that was floated was that they identify a device that defines the household (e.g. a TV), for example based on being always on the same SSID, or being on a wired connection, or the IP address. Then other devices need to be in the same network as that stable device at least say once a month.
Can I have my other households VPN to my local network to bypass this?
I was going to write "Why not have them ssh directly into your tv instead?" as a joke, but now I kind of wonder if that would actually work...
Re: Update on Sharing
#66In Canada, I had the full pickle 4K account and my girls in another city used my account. When the new rules kicked in, I cut my plan and pay half now. And I'll cancel it this month. The service is just not worth it with all the crappy content.
This is the most mind-blowing aspect of this. Kids away at college use their parents' accounts for entertainment. Those kids graduate, then get their own accounts. Netflix is shooting themselves in the foot. These kids will just adopt content from other providers.
If there's one thing I know from experience, it's that college students definitely won't turn to explicit piracy. Never happens, don't worry about it.
Re: Update on Sharing
#67Honestly, I wouldn't have minded something like "buy an extra member" if it were introduced years ago. Introducing it now just seems to be a trigger to re-evaluate "is Netflix really worth that much" at a time their content selection doesn't look as amazing as it once did. I'm coming from a background of having recently cancelled my account though, and may be biased in thinking along those lines as a result. Overall…
I wish they had done this from the get go. My family has never shared a password with anybody, and I'm pretty confident that some of their price hikes reflected the reality that they had to deal with password sharers. All I know is that with the fracturing of the streaming landscape, where everything requires a separate $8.99/$11.99/$15.99 (or whatever) monthly fee, downloading Linux ISOs starts to look more and more…
I only use Debian in theaters.
Re: Update on Sharing
#68Honestly, I wouldn't have minded something like "buy an extra member" if it were introduced years ago. Introducing it now just seems to be a trigger to re-evaluate "is Netflix really worth that much" at a time their content selection doesn't look as amazing as it once did. I'm coming from a background of having recently cancelled my account though, and may be biased in thinking along those lines as a result. Overall…
> Overall it'll be interesting to see how much impact this actually has or doesn't have for subscription volume. My guess is maybe not as much as the usual uproared comments would have you think.
I suspect you're right about this. This change has no effect on the people who aren't sharing their account, so those people have very little incentive to comment except perhaps out of sympathy for those who it will affect. So most of the uproar will understandably be negative, even if a majority of users do not share their account.
Re: Update on Sharing
#69From https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/netflix-is-c... :
> "We love people sharing Netflix," CEO Reed Hastings said Wednesday at the Consumer Electronics Show here in Las Vegas. "That's a positive thing, not a negative thing."
> Hastings, who earlier in the day also revealed Netflix was now in 130 countries, didn't address broad password swapping, but did say a household sharing an account was fine. A lot of the time, he said, household sharing leads to new customers because kids subscribe on their own as they start to earn income.
I mention this lest anyone wrongly think Netflix has the moral high ground on this. Their CEO explicitly said it was OK to share your account, especially with your kids. It's not like those of us who did so were trying to be sneaky and steal service.
If Netflix wants to change the rules, that's their right. I loathe that this is sometimes being portrayed as a crackdown on piracy, though.
Re: Update on Sharing
#70So if they are allowing you to use on devices and networks outside of your home or ones you don't normally use, how are they identifying unique individuals or "households?"
The idea that was floated was that they identify a device that defines the household (e.g. a TV), for example based on being always on the same SSID, or being on a wired connection, or the IP address. Then other devices need to be in the same network as that stable device at least say once a month.
So I would not be allowed to watch Netflix on my work computer during my lunch break?