Slashdot Mirror
Tennessee Makes it Illegal To Share Your Netflix Password
An anonymous reader writes "State lawmakers in Tennessee have passed a groundbreaking measure that would make it a crime to use a friend's login — even with permission — to listen to songs or watch movies from services such as Netflix or Rhapsody. The bill, which has been signed by the governor, was pushed by recording industry officials to try to stop the loss of billions of dollars to illegal music sharing. They hope other states will follow."
... but many places do have laws like that (Boulder, CO has a limit of four unrelated people under one roof), mind you they are intended to prevent people from running brothels... but still
Any and all content posted above may be ignored, considered irrelevant, or otherwise dismissed.
The EU Rental Directive gives rights holders a lot more influence over the use of rentals than they have in the US, where the First-sale doctrine makes rental restrictions harder to defend. For now.
Sorry, but you are mistaken. You can copy it over and over and give copies to your million friends. That's what the "derecho de reproducción privada" (private reproduction right) allows you to do. You can't get some loudspeakers, a screen and a projector and play the movie for any bystander to watch free of charge: that is considered "comunicación pública" (public communication) and requires permission from the author, interpreters and everybody else with some kind of right over the movie you are projecting. I suggest you read the Ley de Propiedad Intelectual (again?).
I work for Netflix (but, obviously, this should not be taken to speak for my employer).
This is something that Netflix thinks about, and it's got about as many safeguards in place to prevent it (starting with the fact you can only have six active devices on your account, followed by the fact that your recommendations get less effective the more you share your account with someone with disparate tastes -- as anyone who shares their account with a spouse will tell you).
As noted in the article, this was pushed by the RIAA types, not Netflix. Netflix had nothing to do with it; it's just that it's being used as the most pervasive example of violation of this law because it's the easiest example.