20% Of Young Adults Use Someone Else’s Netflix Passwords

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Thieves! All of them! We should lock them all up and throw away the key!

Are you piggybacking on the Netflix, HBO Go, Amazon Prime, Hulu, etc, account of a friend or family member? A new report claims that you’re part of the 6% of U.S. households that are costing these companies $500 million in revenue this year. This is according to a new report from Parks Associates, which found that 1-in-5 young adults in the U.S. are using someone else’s account to watch a streaming (or over-the-top [OTT]) video service.
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I'll never understand the logic in counting piracy as lost revenue. Most of them would just not have access. Measuring in added expense per user or the lot (like the bandwidth netflix uses) would make sense, but lost "sales" is a delusion.
 
I had a friend who used another friends Netflix password in exchange for letting his friend use his Hulu password.

This kid also stole tuna fish (about $0.60) from a military chow hall because he "had to do what he had to do to survive."

He was a single staff sergeant. He was doing quite all right.

Some people are just idiots.
 
My kids aren't quite young adults, but my son is getting pretty close. They all use the same account, but then, that's why I pay Netflix extra for more concurrent streams. I hope this isn't what they're referring to. (Just got into work, so didn't read any further yet...)

If you're in the same house, and pay for the streams, then eff 'em.
 
well, we're in the same house, why not? i share my internets.
 
I let my friends use my Netflix when I am not using it. I don't have a problem with it as it's being used by someone regularly and everyone has their own profile. When I want to use it and I don't have an available stream it tells me who is using it and I just send a text to them and they get off for me. I've been doing it this way pretty much since Netflix started.
 
Last I checked Netflix lets you have two streams at once, so if I am already paying for it, what does it matter who I let use it? This is as stupid as a car company complaining if I let another person drive my car.
 
I don't get what the big deal is? To me, this is like the MPAA claiming piracy costs the movie industry $90,000,000,000 a year.
 
Koolthulu said:
Last I checked Netflix lets you have two streams at once, so if I am already paying for it, what does it matter who I let use it? This is as stupid as a car company complaining if I let another person drive my car.
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Well, the two streams (or more if you pay for them) are supposed to be for the same household.

Some people will abuse this, that's nothing new.

If Netflix were smart, they would add a check that the requests are coming from the same NAT:ed public IP or refuse service.
 
Koolthulu said:
Last I checked Netflix lets you have two streams at once, so if I am already paying for it, what does it matter who I let use it? This is as stupid as a car company complaining if I let another person drive my car.
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By default 2 streams. You can pay for up to 4 or 5. (can't remember which off-hand) I do this, because I have four kids, so it's fairly necessary. Point being, whoever owns the account is paying for the ability to stream X amount at the same time, so how they do it is nobody else' business.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041722498 said:
If Netflix were smart, they would add a check that the requests are coming from the same NAT:ed public IP or refuse service.
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Granted, this likely won't work with IPV6, so it would be a short term solution.
 
J3RK said:
By default 2 streams. You can pay for up to 4 or 5. (can't remember which off-hand) I do this, because I have four kids, so it's fairly necessary. Point being, whoever owns the account is paying for the ability to stream X amount at the same time, so how they do it is nobody else' business.
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It is if the agreement states limitations on how those streams can be used.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041722498 said:
If Netflix were smart, they would add a check that the requests are coming from the same NAT:ed public IP or refuse service.
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That would be absolutely horrible. We use our account when we're in hotels, on mobile devices, etc. If they restricted that, they've lost a four stream customer period.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041722503 said:
It is if the agreement states limitations on how those streams can be used.
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And I'm sure because it's my kids using it, that we're well within the terms. I still don't need them trying to limit where we're using them. I don't lend out streams to other people, and I do understand why they'd want to limit that, but they better not do it by location. We use it outside of our house on occasion.

Still, this is far from black and white, so it shouldn't be treated as such. Also, claiming lost revenue? Really? Maybe a little, but just like with piracy and other things of the kind, these are probably people who wouldn't pay for it anyway. So, while I agree they probably shouldn't have access, they're not always going to be lost revenue.
 
nothing they can do about it really. If I pay for the service they can't restrict me to only using it at home. What about when users travel?
 
Yeah, lock them all up! They may become more of a profit center that way, actually. Season 3 of Orange is the new Black has such a great take on it.. and that's a Netflix show!
 
What I don't get is why Netflix isn't doing p2p distribution yet. With so many people likely watching the same stream at the same time, encrypt and buffer the last couple of streams on the local (non-mobile) machine viewing them, and peer to peer stream them from there.

It's a massive missed opportunity, which would also fix Netflix's problem with ISP's, as Comcast and Verizon and the like would see a ton of traffic that just originates and terminates inside their own network...

It's not like it hasnt been done before either. Not that it is the best bittorrent client or anything, but when Azureus became Vuze theywere able to allow users to watching process files, and prioritize the next blocks needed to continue the viewing from other clients.

Everyone would benefit too, as network peering / interconnect sites would be less loaded, resulting in faster internet speeds for just about everyone.
 
so....80% of young adults use their own netflix account. doesnt really sound like much of a headline to me.
 
If any restrictions were to go in effect it's called VPN to the persons house that owns the account... problem solved. That way all the video requests are coming from the same IP or MAC or anything. I mean literally 5min of work and bam... Everyone on earth is coming from my IP wOOt.
 
MNKyDeth said:
If any restrictions were to go in effect it's called VPN to the persons house that owns the account... problem solved. That way all the video requests are coming from the same IP or MAC or anything. I mean literally 5min of work and bam... Everyone on earth is coming from my IP wOOt.
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Agreed, that would be what I would do. but you are also less likely to let strangers VPN in to your network, so it might partially solve the unpaid use problem.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041722498 said:
If Netflix were smart, they would add a check that the requests are coming from the same NAT:ed public IP or refuse service.
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Except I might be traveling, at a friend home, or want to watch something while at work. Those are all legitimate uses of Netflix.

This is just another form of piracy, and the people doing it wouldn't subscribe anyways. They actually might have MORE subscriptions by having a relaxed policy on this, since I'm sure some people justify the expense since they are sharing the service with others.
 
This is more corporate bs. All of these services have a limit on concurrent streams so it doesn't matter if you share account as same number of people can watch at once. Same bs is done by cable companies charging for every set top box you put in your house.
 
MNKyDeth said:
If any restrictions were to go in effect it's called VPN to the persons house that owns the account... problem solved. That way all the video requests are coming from the same IP or MAC or anything. I mean literally 5min of work and bam... Everyone on earth is coming from my IP wOOt.
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Do you have enough upstream bandwith for that?
 
MNKyDeth said:
If any restrictions were to go in effect it's called VPN to the persons house that owns the account... problem solved. That way all the video requests are coming from the same IP or MAC or anything. I mean literally 5min of work and bam... Everyone on earth is coming from my IP wOOt.
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While yes, that would work, I don't pay Netflix a monthly fee to have to do even 5 minutes of extra work. They'd lose a subscriber right there.
 
I share my Netflix but pay for the extra streaming(I think it's like $12). Personally I really don't watch it anymore. I have my movie collection and if I want something educational I can find it on YouTube.
 
zkostik said:
This is more corporate bs. All of these services have a limit on concurrent streams so it doesn't matter if you share account as same number of people can watch at once. Same bs is done by cable companies charging for every set top box you put in your house.
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True, but when they set the price for an account, they are calculating the marginal costs that account will incur. Every stream that is watched costs them royalties, and costs them in bandwidth.

Their calculations for how they can offer what, at what price, is going to include typical use for a two stream account, which is going to include two streams because occasionally someone might want to watch a show on the bedroom TV upstairs at the same time as you are watching something in the livingroom. The calculations are NOT made based on utilization that fully loads both streams at all times.

If that were the calculation, they'd likely have to charge up to 10 times more for the service than they do. thus they give you two streams and the user agreement tells you how you can acceptably use them.

When you give you are giving your password to a friend who lives in a different house, you are not "just using what you are paying for", you are violating the user agreement, and incurring more cost to Netflix than you are allowed to.
 
Armenius said:
I don't get what the big deal is? To me, this is like the MPAA claiming piracy costs the movie industry $90,000,000,000 a year.
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I wonder who they think owes them $90,000,000,000. If everyone stopped watching movies/TV then theoretically they would be "owed" $0.
 
Armenius said:
I don't get what the big deal is? To me, this is like the MPAA claiming piracy costs the movie industry $90,000,000,000 a year.
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Similar, but not exactly.

If you pirate something you were never going to pay for anyway, the impact to the film industry is a big fat zero.

If you use Netflix to stream something you don't have the legal rights to stream, you are still incurring a cost to Netflix, from an electricity, bandwidth, server capacity, royalties paid, etc. etc. perspective.

So, while typical piracy really is a victim less crime, as long as you only pirate stuff you never would have paid for, Improperly using a streaming service actually has victims.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041722620 said:
Similar, but not exactly.

If you pirate something you were never going to pay for anyway, the impact to the film industry is a big fat zero.

If you use Netflix to stream something you don't have the legal rights to stream, you are still incurring a cost to Netflix, from an electricity, bandwidth, server capacity, royalties paid, etc. etc. perspective.

So, while typical piracy really is a victim less crime, as long as you only pirate stuff you never would have paid for, Improperly using a streaming service actually has victims.
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However, if you're using someone else' paid account, then that HAS already been paid for. I have to imagine that they base their fees on between average and worst-case usage. The streams are paid for. Maybe they aren't being used the way they want exactly, but someone IS paying for them. So while not a perfect scenario for them, it's not quite as bad as if say someone hacked an account somehow, wasn't paying at all, and getting the content for free.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041722498 said:
Well, the two streams (or more if you pay for them) are supposed to be for the same household.

Some people will abuse this, that's nothing new.

If Netflix were smart, they would add a check that the requests are coming from the same NAT:ed public IP or refuse service.
Click to expand...

So what happens if:

1. You have an ISP that changes your IP on a regular basis
2. Travel and use something like a phone, tablet, laptop, etc for Netflix and hook up to somebody else's connection to watch? (Hotel, family member, friend, ect).
3. Change your ISP.
4. Move.
 
J3RK said:
However, if you're using someone else' paid account, then that HAS already been paid for. I have to imagine that they base their fees on between average and worst-case usage. The streams are paid for. Maybe they aren't being used the way they want exactly, but someone IS paying for them. So while not a perfect scenario for them, it's not quite as bad as if say someone hacked an account somehow, wasn't paying at all, and getting the content for free.
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If they are offering a service, based on the agreement that it is a single household service, that results in an certain average load across their entire user base.

If you violate the user agreement and share your credentials with people outside your household, you are condltributing to a higher average load by using it in a way that is against the user agreement.

It's not about the usage laods that any one account holder incurrs. Certainly single household with high usage can incurr more load than a low volume household that shares their account with others, but in doing so the latter raises the o erall use and overall average use per account, disrupting the whole formula.

Either way, none of this matters. In order to use the service you agree to the user agreement. It is not up to you to rationalize what you think is acceptable or not. It is not your decision. That decision has already been made as part of the user agreement, and either you avide by that agreement, or you are in breah of contract, and thus violating the law.
 
This is like when I go to a friends house to watch a football game. Unwilling to pay for cable so it is the same thing right?
 
I'd call that... pretty darn GOOD!

Frankly, it would make more sense to offer a 2nd or maximum 3rd simultaneous stream on an account for small additional fees. This would obviously allow a certain amount of sharing, but the principle account holder would be paying for it. So if inside the same family, no problem. If you are doing it for friends you would have to get them to cough up the money to you every month. Obviously that doesn't work well for most people.

I know no-one wants Netflix prices to rise, but we are talking about essentially unfettered multiple streams. It's just like another user account. It would make sense to enable/disable them through a small fee rather than what they are doing now which just depends on people to not openly share accounts.

Before you all flame me to death, I don't care how it gets done. In an ideal world they'd lower the price some, then tack the simultaneous stream fee on.
 
I have a little old lady using a guest account on mine. She wants to be a cord cutter. It might take her a few months to learn how to use it, and if she can use it.
 
cyclone3d said:
So what happens if:

1. You have an ISP that changes your IP on a regular basis
2. Travel and use something like a phone, tablet, laptop, etc for Netflix and hook up to somebody else's connection to watch? (Hotel, family member, friend, ect).
3. Change your ISP.
4. Move.
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I think you misunderstood what I was saying. I was suggesting any streams played at the SAME TIME must be coming from the same IP.

I didn't realize people used their Netflix accounts while mobile or traveling. I only ever use mine on one of my HTPC's in my house.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041722864 said:
I think you misunderstood what I was saying. I was suggesting any streams played at the SAME TIME must be coming from the same IP.

I didn't realize people used their Netflix accounts while mobile or traveling. I only ever use mine on one of my HTPC's in my house.
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they have a phone app for a reason: watching on the go.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041722715 said:
If they are offering a service, based on the agreement that it is a single household service, that results in an certain average load across their entire user base.

If you violate the user agreement and share your credentials with people outside your household, you are condltributing to a higher average load by using it in a way that is against the user agreement.

It's not about the usage laods that any one account holder incurrs. Certainly single household with high usage can incurr more load than a low volume household that shares their account with others, but in doing so the latter raises the o erall use and overall average use per account, disrupting the whole formula.

Either way, none of this matters. In order to use the service you agree to the user agreement. It is not up to you to rationalize what you think is acceptable or not. It is not your decision. That decision has already been made as part of the user agreement, and either you avide by that agreement, or you are in breah of contract, and thus violating the law.
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It's also not up to me to care all that much. Like I said, I only share the account with immediate family. However, they can cry me a big fat river over the people that do share. I couldn't care much less. I try to be a decent person, try to follow most of the rules, but things like this really don't mean a whole lot to me. I give them their money, but I don't really care what other people do as long at they're paying for their streams. I'm not going to say "poor Netflix". They're making plenty of money, and quibbling over something as minute as this is retarded.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041722864 said:
I think you misunderstood what I was saying. I was suggesting any streams played at the SAME TIME must be coming from the same IP.

I didn't realize people used their Netflix accounts while mobile or traveling. I only ever use mine on one of my HTPC's in my house.
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That STILL doesn't work. If I'm on business at a hotel, am I not supposed to watch a movie on a portable device/laptop because my family is using the other streams that I pay for at home?

I tend to agree with you on a lot of subjects that we post in, but can't agree with you on this one at all.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041722864 said:
I think you misunderstood what I was saying. I was suggesting any streams played at the SAME TIME must be coming from the same IP.

I didn't realize people used their Netflix accounts while mobile or traveling. I only ever use mine on one of my HTPC's in my house.
Click to expand...

J3RK said:
That STILL doesn't work. If I'm on business at a hotel, am I not supposed to watch a movie on a portable device/laptop because my family is using the other streams that I pay for at home?

I tend to agree with you on a lot of subjects that we post in, but can't agree with you on this one at all.
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Exactly.
 
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