Netflix password sharing now a criminal offense in the US and UK

Due to inflation, more and more Netflix users are sharing their passwords with each other. That is why sharing the Netflix password is now a criminal offence.

Netflix password sharing less and less generous

Netflix has become a lot less generous with allowing multiple users on their accounts. Not so long ago you could take advantage of the Netflix subscription with the whole family or group of friends, but that number has now been halved for each subscription level.

Netflix subscriptions do of course cost money. It varies from € 8 for the cheapest subscription, to € 12 to € 16 for the most expensive subscriptions, per month. For that reason, many users who are not so well off want to share a password with others. This way you can benefit from a Netflix account with your entire group of friends.

Pay extra per additional user outside the household

This is a violation of Netflix’s terms of use and therefore punishable by law. In the United States and the United Kingdom, among others, the government has therefore actively warned that this is punishable.

The American state of Tennessee is very colorful. Do you get caught sharing your password there? Then you can go to jail for a year and be fined more than $ 1000. For those who remember the aggressive witch hunt by governments and organizations such as Stichting Brein on illegal downloaders, you will get a bad taste. Will streaming service sharing become The Pirate Bay’s new alternative to Torrents?

Netflix will soon offer an option for users outside the household, for example your long-term relationship or children who live away from home, for around € 4 per month extra to allow them to benefit from a location.

Netflix has to

In itself this is not a very high amount and can therefore be overseen. There are quite a few expensive series and feature films on Netflix and this must of course be paid for from somewhere. If you are a fanatical Netflix user, and you take one of the cheaper subscriptions, you can watch Netflix for hours for a quarter to half a euro per day.

In that respect, it remains one of the cheapest leisure activities. Especially if you share Netflix with your housemates. The problem is that more and more streaming services are being added, for example Disney + and Amazon Prime, and that you have to take out a subscription for each of these streaming services. And then those few euros per month will of course add up considerably.