UK Intellectual Property Office says password sharing is criminal act

The question is who has the intent here? Netflix clearly and flagrantly enabled this behaviour for many years. Lax security (no 2FA for a long time for example) and viewer profiles encouraged this behaviour. Further, their plans describe the # of simultaneous streams you get at each tier, they do not describe people or any other constraint.

Netflix had fine print of convenience that banned this behaviour, but at the same time they encouraged it as a growth tactic.

Now that they are choosing to limit this behaviour, doing so under the guise of copyright is disingenuous. I have no idea why the court would entertain them as an aggrieved party.

Sow and reap.

> "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,"

I'm not sure the IPO could say anything else. Its position boils down to: "it might be illegal to share your password." It can't say definitively either way because the issue has never been before the courts.

(The headline used here is a bit clickbaity. The original is "Netflix password sharing may be illegal, says UK government" )

In the US, this could be interpreted as probable cause to search and seize your phone and computer unless you subscribe to Netflix.