No more free love: Netflix expands account sharing restrictions The age of freely sharing Netflix passwords is drawing to a close as the streaming service announced the expansion of account restrictions in four more countries alongside plans to roll restrictions out "more broadly in the coming months." While a date hasn't been set for wider rollout, Netflix said in a blog post yesterday …
I only briefly re-joined to watch Jenny Ortega's Wednesday, and that was it.
My problems with Netflix are:
1) I live in multiple countries and travel, but I like my movies in English. That OK-ish, but as soon as you're abroad the subtitles no longer include English (I have a mild hearing defect, so this helps). Adding this 31 days BS will only made that worse,
2) I still like the UK selection fo movies, but when I'm abroad that isn't really available. Unless I use a VPN, but I think it ought to be possible to choose the country, even if you're abroad - as long as you don't change it too often. Personally I am getting very, VERY fed up with the whole region bollocks.
3) Content turnover is low IMHO, and I'm not really interested in watching the same things twice but ..
4) .. they don't HAVE much of the older stuff that's worth seeing such as the original Thomas Crown Affair movie (i.e. the one before the Pierce Brosnan/Rene Russo one - also good, just different).
So, as an informed consumer, I take my business away. It's not a gym membership :)
I tried netflix once, all sorts of DRM bollocks meant it wouldn't play properly via my 4K projector, due to my driver not being "authorized". No way I was going to buy a separate and closed/locked inferior new dongle just for that, so I cancelled.
I know it's the studios who tie their hands when it comes to DRM, but seeing as DRM never stops the pirates, they only end up pissing off the legitimate customer.
> I live in multiple countries and travel, but I like my movies in English. That OK-ish, but as soon as you're abroad the subtitles no longer include English (I have a mild hearing defect, so this helps). Adding this 31 days BS will only made that worse,
Use a dvd or rip.
> 2) I still like the UK selection fo movies, but when I'm abroad that isn't really available. Unless I use a VPN, but I think it ought to be possible to choose the country, even if you're abroad - as long as you don't change it too often. Personally I am getting very, VERY fed up with the whole region bollocks.
Use a dvd or rip
> 4) .. they don't HAVE much of the older stuff that's worth seeing such as the original Thomas Crown Affair movie (i.e. the one before the Pierce Brosnan/Rene Russo one - also good, just different).
Use a DVD or rip
I was in France for a while doing stuff in our French pubs across France. I took all my entertainment with me on my laptop, ripped loads of DVD's which I left at home. Audio too.
Things were simpler in the days you were free to actually buy and own stuff. Even though they claimed it was still licensed to you, it was a bluff and they knew it.
I would imagine the algorithm is looking that all the users in your account connect through the same connection at some point.
If it's just you then there's no change
If there's others, it sounds like in your scenario they'll connect using your WiFi
If you didn't have home WiFi and you all connect through your own devices then you're stuffed (unless they do Bluetooth proximity, in which case it's time to get the tinfoil out)
The algorithm would need to be a little sophisticated so that it can have change of ISP and/or home router within 30 days of any change. As you note suspect one factor is getting all devices to access the service via the same router etc. is a big factor in determining what is “home”.
Be interesting whether configuring your mobile router to have the same Mac addresses etc. as the static home router, gets around the 31 day limit.
I do know an ERP technical sales guy who lives exclusively out of hotels. All of his apartment furniture was placed in a storage container as he was seldom home to enjoy it. Most of his hotel stays are paid by end clients needing his services and he only foots the bill himself 1-2 days a month. He's perfectly happy with that situation, as he pockets his paycheck and expenses laundry / meals. He makes the company a packet, so they are happy too.
Depends. If you're young, single and like to travel, it's not bad, at least for a while. I pretty much did that for a year many years ago although I was home at the weekends. I had a mortgage, but if you're renting, dumping the home base for a year or three sounds doable and likely more economic.
Got that email this morning in Canada.
Largely won't affect me but one of my daughters who lives away sometimes uses it so it will probably impact her.
Honestly, I can see where Netflix is coming from, as regards their revenue, but as Cory Doctorow has described in his commentary on this issue, it is indeed very difficult to define what a household is.
Also Netflix, if you are worried about revenue, stop funding bullshit woke crap and stick with the stuff that has been very popular. Netflix "originals" have been a very mixed bag, some extremely good, some embarrassingly awful and a lot somewhere in the middle. And copying popular films/series never works, stop doing it.
When someone complains about "woke crap", they generally mean anything that isn't fascist or racist, or right-wing propaganda.
Yes, there is a lot of "sugary bland inspirational" stuff around, but did you ever see our (US) sit-coms of the 70's and 80's??
If your claim is legitimate, you'd be better off properly categorizing the issues with the programs you describe. Calling anything "woke" just makes you out to be a right-wing dingbat sheep who believes all the scary shit that Fox, OAN and Newsmax throw at you.
Don’t know about US sit-coms, but some of the UK stuff the same era is definitely cringeworthy and in-PC.
It’s been a bit of an education because I didn’t watch very much ‘ entertainment’ TV, hence missed most of it.
> "sugary bland inspirational" stuff
I find it quite refreshing to watch films etc. that originate outside of Hollywood, they tend to omit the saccharine,moralising and ‘forced’ happy ever after endings.
> I find it quite refreshing to watch films etc. that originate outside of Hollywood, they tend to omit the saccharine,moralising and ‘forced’ happy ever after endings.
Agreed.
Much of what I watch is foreign made, particularly Korean. The subtitles don't bother me and the stories & characters are far more subtle and emotionally compelling.
I have to give props to Netflix for the catalogue of foreign films and series that they are making more available to a western audience, some of which they are also funding. It has introduced me to a larger vista of viewing that I never thought possible before.
"Don’t know about US sit-coms, but some of the UK stuff the same era is definitely cringeworthy and in-PC."
Interestingly, I've just recently watched Man About The House. Most of it is still very funny, some great one liners and, of course, muchly non-PC by todays standards but still very entertaining. It might also be because I lived through that era so I know what was funny then, what is non-PC today and so can accept it for what it is without fake outrage because I know it was a different time from experience, not reading about it :-)
That definition isn't even close to what most people are complaining about.
"woke crap" is when programs prioritize diversity, inclusion, and anti-male, anti-straight (or even L&G these days it appears), anti-white rhetoric over quality.
Take a great, or even good, existing IP then race and or gender swap the characters and expect people to praise it. Little Mermaid, Ghostbusters, etc. Create your own IP.
Take an existing, usually male character, and deconstruct it. Make it out to be weak, incompetent, helpless. Usually paired with an all powerful, all knowing, invulnerable, never growing, never learning female character. Some examples include: James Bond, Luke Skywalker, heck even Dr. Who.
Prioritize a great story, expertly told. Cast and characters that make sense for the story and time period they are in. Realistic characters that have strengths and weaknesses, that get hurt and overcome, that grow and evolve.
Being tired of "woke garbage" has very little to do with whether or not your consume a steady diet of Fox, OAN or Newsmax but instead whether or not you evaluate the quality of programs based on their own merits instead of by how many squares you can fill in on your DEI bingo card.
A very recent Netflix example is the Witcher program. It started out decent enough, Cavill was a great choice to play Geralt. But the show runners openly despised the source material, each episode, each season saw the titular character become more of a supporting role. Geralt sidelined for a focus on the female characters. That's not the source material, that's not the program Netflix promised viewers. If they wanted to create their own show; "Women of the Witcher World" go for it, but don't butcher this show. Of course, judging by just how bad "The Witcher: Blood Origin" turned out, maybe they should skip that.
The list of horrific programs, both television shows and movies, that have been mutilated in order to service the alter of "woke" grows longer everyday. Ratings plummet, most don't even break even in the box office. Even the once great Disney has seen it's fortune tumble.
But until studios, producers, and others realize that pandering to a small, exceptionally vocal, occasionally violent minority is going to nothing but drive their works to irrelevance and their companies into bankruptcy, the vast majority of folks that just want to consume quality entertainment will take their eyeballs and their money elsewhere.
No amount of name calling is going to change that basic fact.
Gosh I don't know what to add to that, you said it all so eloquently.
I have no problem with watching a good series or film that has a moral message.
But all the hatred, bitterness and self-loathing that is poured into a lot of this "content" is so repellent to me. HBO's "Velma" has to be the touchstone of this phenomena. Honestly though, if Velma was pitched as a comedic parody and modified somewhat towards that format, I think it could have been a big hit for HBO.
As the original anon, pleas see my response. If you'd explained what you were referring to, like "jilocasin" did, I'd have agreed with you.
Maybe you should google "woke crap" and look at some of the stuff that people call woke crap.
You'll mostly NOT find posts about forcing gender changes in TV shows, you'll find bitter right wingers criticising the UK coastguard for saving drowning immigrants, you'll find people complaining about the humans right act.
You'll see posts from people annoyed that the N word is censored. You'll see the exact sort of idiots I referred to in my original post. As I said, calling something "woke crap" lumps you in with them.
> people complaining about the humans right act
The Human Rights Act needs to be repealed right now, it is a modern invention that added nothing to the existing human rights legislation besides the ability to have courts get in the way when we all know they really shouldnt have.
The UK constitution had everything already in place, this act sist on top and messes the whole lot up for legal reasons. Same with the ECHR, which the UK dodnt need as we alrteady had everything needed to guaratee all human rights, the EU needed it so the UK CREATED THE ECHR. Then we try to leav it, as its simply not needed here and here we go with "human rights violation" crap, spouted by people who have no idea what the UK constitution is all about.
We INVENTED THE ECHR because EU didnt have anything like it. It's messing with our needs right now, so lets be rid of it.
HBO's "Velma" has to be the touchstone of this phenomena.
Netflix Originals were uneven. They weren't guaranteed to be great, but their track record was good enough that people would start watching things like their MCU shows just on the fact that Netflix recommended them. Sure, there were misses (Iron Fist comes to mind), but generally speaking, even the duds were still watchable.
Then they started to change direction. Back in 2019, Netflix promoted the hell out of their Another Life series. It was not only laughably bad (a Youtube video mocking it actually got more views and feedback than the Netflix official marketing of it), it was absurd. If it had been named marketed as a a satire, and called the ship the "USS Diversity Hire", it might have been accepted as a comedy, but Netflix was pushing this as their vision of serious science fiction. Then they followed it up with The I-Land, and people I know stopped watching "Netflix Originals" at that point.
And then there was Cuties. The controversy over that was enough to damage the brand significantly. They even had to issue a memo to employees telling them to knock it off with all the heavy handed politics, because it was costing them viewers.
There are still good shows being produced, and breakout hits like Stranger Things, Squid Game, and Wednesday, but those are the exceptions. Netflix's reputation for quality just isn't there any more, and it's been replaced with a reputation of producing propaganda instead of entertainment. Not surprisingly, that hasn't helped their revenue numbers.
As the anon you are replying to, I actually agree with you on the programs.
> woke crap" your definition is displaying your bias
No, your definition is displaying your ignorance.
> Being tired of "woke garbage" has very little to do with whether or not your consume a steady diet of Fox, OAN or Newsmax but instead whether or not you evaluate the quality of programs based on their own merits instead of by how many squares you can fill in on your DEI bingo card.
Being tired of that rubbish has nothing to do with Fox, OAN, or Newsmax. I agree. However calling it "woke crap" does tie you to them.
As I said, you will find all sorts of pond-life scum calling anything that isn't right-wing "woke". Anti-racist? Woke. Anti human rights? woke. Won't let people whitewash our history? WOKE!
You may claim that the meaning of "woke" has changed from it's original meaning, but it's also shifted away from what you appear to think it means.
I've seen no diminishment in racism in "woke media" vs other.
Change in direction and style of expression. But ultimately seems as stuck in the social muck as anything else.
Social warfare , like all warfare is brutal to watch.
Social warfare is more brutal in that it aspires to control the mindscape of all.
That's always been the problem with Netflix's recommendations.
It'll be much more useful if it took note of what you've watched previously and avoided showing you similar stuff so as not to bore you.
It only takes one or two demonstrative examples to understand the core concepts demonstrated by a show or movie.
After a successful communication of concept, further attempts to demonstrate already communicated concept just feels like summer reruns.
The repetition is insulting. In that you're being treated as if you are incompetent to understand their communicated proposition for thinking.
It's as if Netflix assumes all its watchers have learning disabilities.
Agreed.
Netflix has got a bit better recently, but the idea that I prefer to watch variations of what I watched before is so flawed.
And if you are watching even slightly political content then you get shepherded into more of the same. YouTube has that problem and I believe that lack of diversity in thought is responsible for a lot of the evils in political thinking today.
Netflix can do whatever they want with their programming. If they want to push the woke agenda, they are completely free to do that. Just don't complain when that target market does not deliver the anticipated market share.
Personally, I don't fit that demographic profile. I moved on to other services after being a Netflix customer since the time of mailed DVDs. Just as Netflix is free to change their business model and produce whatever content they want, I am free to choose where I spend my entertainment money. I am not upset about it.
The business decisions that Netflix makes are theirs to own - whether a success or failure. I believe Netflix's 2023 decision to limit password sharing is an attempt to reduce their bandwidth costs, after their market share loss in 2022. I don't think this change will magically make a lot of freeloaders suddenly pay for their product.
> it is indeed very difficult to define what a household is
Its easy, it is in the name. HOUSEhold. Definition, those who live in the same HOUSE.
When you live at more than one house you are part of MULTIPLE households, thus one will have the netflix account, the other must have its own.
It really isnt that hard, seems like someone if trying to suggest that household is akin to a family group.
It was really clear in the UK pandemic lockdown. I lived by myself and that meant I was a separate household all by myself thus not able to visit anyone etc. However that was changed a few weeks later for singletons like myself allowing us to be considered a single household with another that we had to choose, which was in this case my parents.
Thus later when TWO households were allowed to meet outdoors I was able to go along with my parents as one household to my sisters for my nephews birthdays.
An EXCEPTION was made to allow my household to combine with my parents due to me living alone during lockdown, thus my household and my parents households were separate entities, temporarily joined together for mental health reasons. Thus the definition of a household is a house and those who live in it. The moment you leave the house to live somewhere else, well you are not in that household are you?
Not even for broadcast video, or radio stations, or anything over the internet. It may be used by ISP to customer for IPTV broadcast (where the ISP is responsible for delivering the content to you, as opposed to the internet) but that'd sbout it.
Multicast is insecure, can be used to DDOS, and due to it's lack of popularity, doesn't even work in many routers.
The issues have been largely addressed with IPv6 multicast, so if/when our National TV services are switched from broadcast to internet, expect it to make an appearance then.. I can't see the BBC streaming the same HD content to 20 million devices at the same time any other way!
Multicasting was the "great idea" that would allow video streaming without the bandwidth - it never took off in general. There are too many ways it can break, and AIUI not many ISPS support it anyway.
So even when it's a live event, it's a separate stream to each of them.
Netflix is already charging per stream. Your plan includes one simultaneous stream, ... four simultaneous streams. If they really wanted to avoid freeloaders, all they had to do is divorce quality from quantity.
One stream 720p costs a, one stream 4k costs b.
Three streams 720p costs 3*a, three streams 4k costs 3*b.
Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Now there is no 'economic' incentive to be 'sharing' accounts and Netflix would still get its pound of flesh. People could get their own independent accounts, get two simultaneous streams one for you and one for your kids bedroom, or even four. Two for your physical house, one for your daughter off at college, and another for grandpa in the nursing home. You define your household as you see fit without all of this artificial complexity.
But that would require Netflix to think logically. Instead someone has been whispering into the ear of Netflix execs that there are millions of folks using Netflix without an account. If you can force them to all get their own accounts we'd be raking in billions of additional revenue.
The truth is going to be more like, tens of thousands of new viewers subscribe, but *millions* of frustrated viewers cancel. A pyrrhic victory if I've ever seen one.
Of course this doesn't even include all of those viewers who are tired of the relentless price hikes and the dwindling amount of quality programming and who were just looking for an excuse to overcome inertia and cancel their accounts.
I don't know what their internal numbers are, but I imagine they've calculated the costs for sending large files to multiple users and for paying royalties. They can use their existing logs to see how much less of both of these they'd be paying if they cut off certain classes of users, with the possibility that any person cut off may either stop watching, saving them the costs, or buy another membership, increasing their revenue. They probably don't know any way to accurately estimate how many of each will do that, but they can more accurately estimate the savings possibility.
When we tried mobile (in the 4G, not portable, sense) broadband for our home we found the CGNAT meant each connection (even while browsing a single website) would appear to come from a different source IP to the remote end.
Despite being twice as fast as our copper-wire based broadband, and cheaper, we went back because of this - amongst other websites it meant we couldn’t use Sky’s on demand or NS&I’s banking websites. At the time, Netflix worked fine on it.
Really liked MythcBeasts having the tickbox option on the login page to un/link the login from/to the connecting IP.
I hope they’ve considered IPv6, where every device might present its own IP. I wonder how they’ll distinguish between users who have their own network prefix allocated (therefore all devices at one prefix might be one household) and e.g students in Univeristy halls who will be using a subset of addresses within someone else’s network?
Can't speak for everyone, but the IP changes every time I connect with the outside WAN. As a rule once every 24h's. or sooner if I want to slide past those limited time freehostsers with multi-part DLs. instead of waiting up to 4hs between parts. This said the IP Addy really only changes in the last 2 positions. Yeah apparently Yodaphone (Germany), have heard if IPV6 too... I gather they will switch everyone over any day now....
*Skull = Still waiting meme....
As far as I can tell it's more about the geolocation of the IP address you use.
Even that can be a bit variable. I have fixed IP addresses from Zen and various services over the years have geolocated me in Rochdale (Zen's HQ), Bolton, London or occasionally Bristol or Nottingham. I'm actually in Cambridge.
I don't think Netflix needs it that granular. The whole MPAA region rigging that's in principle behind it only works on country level, and the 'ye shall not share with someone who is not in your house' thing will probably work on IP address.
All assumptions, btw, they got the boot in my place quite a while back.
That is just as bad. My ISP registers the location of their IP addresses as one of their many offices, sometimes in London, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcasle or some rural part of England I can't remember.
I live in Scotland.
If Netflix are relying on geolocating the IP address I'm going to be cancelling my account very soon.
Just about all DSL providers in the UK do that.
Most even peer your traffic off their network to the internet in London. Talk-talk, for example - all internet connections go through London, even if you are in Scotland and you are connecting to a site in Scotland.
Effectively, the whole of their countrywide network is "one internal network" and there'd be nothing stopping them assigning an IP address to a Scottish customer one day, and one at Lands End the other (of course, they may have to change their local RAS equipment etc. but from the internets point of view, it can be done without any network route changes)
This is why those geolocation services for UK DSL customers are so all over the place.
(*) I'm not sure if virgin's cable network is the same, or whether it's IPs are regionalised with multiple peer points.
Not only do grammar rules appear to disagree with you, I personally consider the place from where they control the Euro, the European Central Bank as the most likely authority on this, and all articles and publications on their site put the € symbol before the amount.
In addition, the letter notation EUR follows the same rule so I'm not sure why Portugal and Spain differ.
Not having a Netflix subscription, I can't make a reasoned judgment on why anyone would want one.
I suppose this is where the "password-sharing" thing comes in.
Still, a couple of years ago some rellies visited and made use of their own accounts on my telly.
So I have to admit that I have actually seen some Netflix content.
And I still can't imagine why anyone would pay for it. You're all right with your password sharing; I'm not in the slightest bit interested.
-A.
You wouldn't steal a DVD
No, you only need to travel back to the part of the world where you bought it to legally be able to play it. Kinda ironic that MPAA pretty much forced the people who had the money to spend on DVDs to buy pirated versions because they could otherwise not play their DVDs if they bought them legally.
> I saw a comment from someone the other day who said that each of their various family members subscribe to one of Netflix, Disney, Kayo etc and they all share the password.
The thing is about Netflix is that they *do* restrict the number of concurrent streams depending on what you are paying. People sharing an account can't all watch a number of shows at the same time.
The point to way in is this, I pay for a full tier 4k subscription which allows me to watch up to 4 streams at once. So as long as I don’t exceed 4 streams does it matter to them where people logging in with accounts physically are.
I can understand if you are on the 1 stream at a time subscription but on a 4 stream…..
Nope there are rules about large groups in the license but this refers to pubs and anywhere you take money - which seems reasonable.
I have a few box sets and they get lent to family friends etc once I have watched them and the same happens with movies.
And before anyone asks I do buy the discs as I then always have them even if I stop paying for the streaming services
my daughter lives in a boarding school due to her autism.
Is she no longer part of my household?
And what about my other daughter that shares time between my ex and myself?
Well, looks like it's going the same way as my Amazon Prime account when they completely fucked up Prime Music.
> Is she no longer part of my household?
You said she is in a boarding school, unless you live at the school then YES she is not part of your household.
> And what about my other daughter that shares time between my ex and myself?
Seriously, how hard is this? Other daughter can use YOUR account at YOUR place when she is at YOUR place. When she is at the other place, well that up to mum to sort out isnt it, if mum hates netflix then daughter watched amazon prime...
i have never shared my Netflix password with anyone. This requirement to log in from your home network every 31 days will make me close my Netflix account the first time it prevents me legitimately watching something on my own device just because I happen to be away from home and I didn't think to pre-authorise my devices before leaving.
Total nonsense.
Fuck you Netflix.
You will lose a very long term subscriber.
I guess if you have a decent enough internet connection such as cable of fiber, you could run a VPN server at home on something like a Raspberry Pi, and allow your friends/family member who are sharing your Netflix account to connect into your VPN server for watching Netflix. As they would then be coming from the same IP address and therefore the same house as far as Netflix are concerned.
Or you could get a free VPS with Amazon, Google Cloud, Oracle and set up private VPN server which you all use when watching Netflix if your home internet is too slow to host a VPN server at home. Although im not sure if Netflix block data centre IP addresses from using their service? But if VPNs such as Surfshark or NordVPN work then I don't see why setting up your own VPN won't work to.
Obviously you need to trust them that they aren't going to do anything illegal online using these VPN that might then tie back to your internet provider if the cops come a knocking though.
Is "home" the public IP Address my router pulls? How does that work if I have Starlink with 'carrier grade NAT'?
Or is "home" the SSID my device is connecting to? What about my PC which is wired to my router and not tracking to an SSID? And how do I keep my SSID & password from being shared with Netflix for their validation purposes?
What if I name my SSID "attwifi" or "xfinity"? And then tell all my shared password friends to name their SSIDs the same.
It's all academic to me anyway. I dumped Netflix a year ago.
A friend didn't so much as as share his password with me as he entered it on my XBox when he was visiting one day and wanted the gang to see some movie. He had one of those accounts which allowed four simultaneous logins, and there was no mention about households a the time, so he just set it up at three friends' houses and told us we were welcome to use it.
Now that he's getting emails from Netflix warning him of impending restrictions, he's asking me to test it to see if it still works. It did, as of Feb 10th, although apparently that ends on Feb 21st.
Personally, between Amazon Prime and Youtube, I doubt if I've actually watched more than 10 hours of Netflix in the past year. The only series I can think that I deliberately used it for was to watch Wednesday. I certainly won't be buying a subscription, and I doubt I'll miss it.
Back in 2015, Netflix was the one and only streaming service, and it had both all of the legacy movies and television series. Outside of live concerts and sports, it was the one shop shopping location for all people's entertainment needs. Today, the streaming landscape is fractured. On the commercial side, there is Apple TV, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney+, HBO Max. Then there is the freeware/ad-supported tier, like Tubi, Plex.tv, Crackle, and Roku. And then of course there are torrents and the pirate streamers.
So, Netflix has more competition than before, its' prices are higher than before, and it's taking action to disable one of the strongest reasons for its' growth.
I'm sure that some people will sign up for their own accounts, but I have no doubt that this will cost them many subscribers, as well. Whether it will be a net gain or a net loss in terms of subscriber numbers, I don't know. I suspect it will be a loss, but that's just a guess. I'm sure it will save them bandwidth costs, but whether it will restore profitability is anyone's guess.
I find this all enlightening, this is why streaming is apparently killing physical.
Everyone just needs to "know a friend" and get it for free! Well now the free ride is over and everyone must pay the dues, I wonder if they will suddenly cut back on which services they use...
This will result in many feeling like they now have less options, less to watch.
Maybe some will even turn the TV back on like at the end of The Truman Show :D
Is this a problem?
I mean, isnt it common sense not to share account details with everyone?
All that guff about not copying stuff (piracy) and the plugging of the analogue hole that we all had to put up with plus the death of personal recording devices and et people still managed to share stuff :D
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