Netflix’s attempt to crack down on password sharing isn’t going well, folks. Not to be super obvious or anything, but are we really that sad about it? I mean, this was a doomed venture from the get-go, right?
I say this not only because everyone shares passwords with everyone, but also because the manner in which the company was planning to go about stopping the practice didn’t make much sense. I mean, a family can consist of more than one person, and they don’t all live in the same house necessarily. How was Netflix going to account for that?
And that’s just one of the obstacles that Netflix has been dealing with as it tested out its password-sharing crackdown in Costa Rica, Peru, and Chile. One thing they’re trying is to charge people $2-$3 extra to share their password with anyone that falls outside of their “household.” But again, what are they defining a “household”?
Netflix’s attempts to stop password sharing is hitting roadblocks
According to Rest of World, Netflix defines a household as “exclusively people a subscriber lives with” and not their immediate family. This means that if your sister lives in a different state than you and you’ve been sharing an account, you would incur a fee. It seems like it’s location-dependent, which again doesn’t make sense because you could move, you could go on vacation, or something else.
Rest of World spoke with Netflix subscribers in Peru who were super-confused about the new rules Netflix put forth. A Netflix customer service rep revealed anonymously that they were told if a customer calls to complain about the new rules then they can give them a special code that will let them use their Netflix account in more than one location. So basically, Netflix doesn’t really care and everyone can just call and get around the rules?
I’m not sure how this plan looks long-term or how it will play out for U.S. and U.K. subscribers, but something tells me Netflix is likely to give up on this whole debacle sooner rather than later.
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h/t The A.V. Club