This past Tuesday, December 20, 2022, the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) officially announced that the act of sharing passwords for specific production companies is now deemed illegal throughout the United Kingdom. U.K. government agencies declared that the sharing passwords movement on platforms such as Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Disney+ is “breaking copyright law,” according to the government, taking a huge turn from the corporation’s previous green light to encourage its consumers to share their passwords.
“There are a range of provisions in the 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,” a spokesperson from the newest U.K. law stated. “These provisions may include breach of contractual terms, fraud or secondary copyright infringement, depending on the circumstances… Where these provisions are provided in civil law, it would be up to the service provider to take action through the courts if required.”
Matt Ross, product manager for Netflix, also went on to release a short statement claiming that this particular way of account sharing “presents a major challenge” to themselves and other streaming services — “Following on from the addition of the ad-supported tier, there is clearly an opportunity for Netflix to generate significant revenue by cracking down on account sharing and converting those who do into subscribers in their own right.”