Reported today on The Guardian Technology For the full article visit:
Swapping streams: 'Subscription services are supposed to be a shared commodity'
Sharing the passwords to streaming services is commonplace, but while the etiquette of doing so is undefined, the terms of service are clear
The cheapest subscriptions to Netflix, Stan and Spotify are about $10 a month. But people are paying much, much less than that. Many share the services with partners or friends. Some share with friends of friends. And others share with their housemate's ex-partner's family – who they have never actually met.
"We just never logged out," says Kate. Her housemate's ex signed in once with his family account on the sharehouse TV and that was it: free Netflix for the foreseeable future, all for the price of some dud movie recommendations. "He was really into action and really blokey content – not my cuppa at all. Luckily, no Adam Sandler recommendations ever came up," she says.
Jane had a similar experience. She and her sister used her boyfriend's friend's girlfriend's Netflix login for months – before word got around. "She was extremely pissed about it," Jane says. "She felt betrayed and used."
Jane didn't mean any harm. She didn't think it would matter at all. "I truly think that subscription services are supposed to be a shared commodity," she says. "I use my sister's Netflix, she uses my Stan, two friends use my Hayu, and I use my friend's Disney+.
"I've handed out my Stan to so many people that my friend said to me, 'Hey, we got our own Stan, thanks for letting us use yours for the past two years', and I was like, 'You use it?'"
If Seinfeld was still running in 2020, it would have an episode about subscription sharing. Everyone's doing it, but no one can quite agree on the social norms. Do you need to be clos
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