Sharing streaming platforms’ password may be illegal, says UK government agency

Netflix password sharing could be illegal in the United Kingdom, suggests a government agency. According to the government agency – The Intellectual Property Office (IPO), sharing passwords of streaming platforms, such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video is against the law. These kinds of practices break the copyright laws.

It is common in the United Kingdom to share passwords of different streaming services, such as Netflix, Disney Plus, HBO, and others, among friends and family members. “The practice is typically against the terms of user agreements,” the agency said. Although the IPO is making a tough stand on this issue, Netflix has never said it would take legal action against such practices.
“There are a range of provisions in criminal and civil law, which may be applicable in the case of password sharing where the intent is to allow a user to access copyright-protected works without payment. These provisions may include breach of contractual terms, fraud, or secondary copyright infringement, depending on the circumstances,” the IPO guidelines read.




Though the IPO guidelines seem very strict, major OTT platforms would not likely take legal action. However, all the major platforms, including Netflix, are planning different measures to prevent password sharing. Netflix has officially announced that it will soon be charging for password sharing from early 2023. Earlier this year, Netflix experimented with this policy in Chilli, Peru, and Costa Rica. In this policy, subscribers in these countries were allowed to add two extra members for an additional $2.99. The experiment results have been positive, as Netflix is rolling out a similar policy for other countries. However, Netflix has yet to announce the charges for this service in other countries.

Earlier, in the Q-1 of 2022, Netflix declared in the April Shareholders meeting that the company had lost subscribers for the first time in a decade. The company said that cracking down on password sharing would be a good opportunity for going further. Netflix has announced that it has added 2.4 million subscribers in Q-3.

FAQs:

1. Who is the founder of Netflix?
   Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph are the founders of Netflix.
2. When was Netflix founded?
   Netflix was founded in 1997.