UK says Netflix account sharing is illegal

The UK government has decided to warn you that it’s illegal to give your Netflix password to someone, although they’re not sure and won’t do anything until the police ask.

You’d think the UK government, with a shaky economy (like its neighbours), would have enough to do with families struggling to eat or keep warm, but apparently they want to look after streaming account sharing. If it wasn’t for corporate American lobbyists…

Netflix doesn’t want to share

According to BBC News, the UK government’s Office of Intellectual Property (OPI) has announced that sharing Netflix passwords is subject to criminal and civil law. This is what Apple, Netflix and other Disney hit on Separation This makes it possible to share the cost of a subscription.

A variety of criminal and civil law provisions apply to password sharing for the purpose of allowing users to access copyrighted works without payment. These provisions may include breach of contract, fraud or secondary copyright infringement depending on the circumstances.

BBC News specifically asked what this meant Crown Prosecution Service Not just from the UK (CPS), it wants to charge users who share their passwords with a crime.

Any decision to charge someone for sharing passwords to streaming services will be considered on a case-by-case basis. As with all cases, if an investigator makes a referral to the CPS for a charging decision, a prosecution should be pursued when there is sufficient evidence to do so and where a prosecution is required in the case, in the public interest.

So if Netflix wants to get the police involved, the case will go to court and become a criminal case. OPI embellishes every statement with “may” and “if,” which should be cautioned. Either way, Netflix told BBC News it won’t press charges against anyone, at least for now.

Instead, as previously announced, Netflix said it wants to “make it easier” to create individual accounts and, in early 2023, introduce “sub-accounts.” Pay extra For their family and friends.

What do you think about this account sharing approach?