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Sharing HBO Go Accounts Could Result In Prison
coolnumbr12 writes "In a recent New York Times article called 'No TV? No Subscription? No Problem?' Jenna Wortham noted how she used, 'the information of a guy in New Jersey that I had once met in a Mexican restaurant.' Dave Their of Forbes admitted that he used his sister's boyfriend's father's account in exchange for his Netflix information. But this is stealing under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which makes it a misdemeanor with a maximum one-year prison sentence to 'obtain without authorization information from a protected computer.' It is also a violation of the Digital Millennium Copy Act because it is knowingly circumventing a protection measure set up to prevent someone from watching content like 'Game of Thrones' without paying. Forbes points out that a crafty prosecutor could also claim that using an HBO Go password without paying is a form of identity theft."
Of course this is theft of service! Someone is benefitting from the service of these companies without paying. That's a lost sale right there!!! The true travesty is that people within the same household are not allowed to be charged for a subscription to these services as well... Damn freeloaders!
(:Damm, all the states are making pot legal... Who are we going to go after for nice easy busts so we look like we're working? Without going after real criminals who might shoot back? Not to mention we need to keep up with keeping our for-profit prisons full. Those guys paid us alot you know.
(:Well, what about computer users? Maybe everyone who shares accounts or break a EULA? Those people are pretty non-violent too. Heck we can even do this by mail.
(:Brilliant! Lets do it!
Stupid arse obnoxious overkill laws... But definitely theft of service, just the punishment is hardly fitting for the crime, if that is how they are prosecuted.
They didn't steal accounts from each other. They shared. What is this world coming to? A place for fascist corporations and governments who clearly support them.
Fortunately our US Attorneys are well-known for their common sense and restraint, and when they *do* go overboard, they get fired and disbarred like Carmen Ortiz.
If you are facing the choice to either sit down in front of the TV or to go in the street and kick the living dayligths out of an innocent stranger, now you know which one is safer.
idea. you and whatever other person you wish to share account with start a limmited liability company that signs up for account as "employees" of said company you get access to their netflix/hulu/hbo go account. if sued the limited libabillity company goes under and nothing happens to you. use the corporate contorted legal system to your own advantage
---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
Welcome to the new world where you are all criminals!
Now do what we say or we'll lock you away.
"Kittens give Morbo gas!"
It would seem as though it would be safer for an individual to obtain these shows through means of copyright infringement using peer to peer software, as well as easier.
I get the sharing account information; that's illegal based on licensing laws, too. But what about things that are public? Not my fault the guy on the park bench next to me is watching the Padres get spanked by the Cubs, and I just happened to "overhear" it.
Sheesh. It's like they want everyone to be strapped into an incubator and fed images directly only to themselves with no sharing of any kind. Wasn't there some game system coming out like that soon?
Someone had actually been charged with something rather than just some random guy supposing it could happen.
I read an article on Slashdot last year about The Game of Thrones that stated that it was the number one pirated show on the Internet. Because I am a guy who believes in rewarding good talent and also knowing that GoT was a pretty darn good show, I bought both Seasons 1 and 2 (yes, paid for it!) on iTunes. And I was right, a fantastic show! So when my wife and I finally finished off Season 2 and Season 3 was just starting up, we went to our trusty iTunes to get a subscription for Season 3. Well, sorry folks, it's only available in Australia. And we wonder why people are attempting to steal it? Seriously, make it available to purchase and I'll be more than happy to do so. In the meantime, I can't exactly imagine why the piracy happens... Stumped really... Correct me if I'm wrong, if a technology is not readily available to be used, isn't the circumvention of the protection mechanisms legal under fair use? Was that not the point of the DeCSS case?
Select from tblFriends where interesting >= 4;
I would happily buy the bluray of GoT season 3 today if I could. I can't so i'll find 'other means' to watch it. When I can, I will buy the bluray (just like I bought season 1 and 2).
Happy to, Trollio. It's the other $80 for 90000 channels i dont watch that I object to.
I would be less not ok with this if it were actually possible to purchase HBO Go, which it isn't.
HBO could easily solve this problem by offering their shows for sale/rent online the same day or the day after it's aired on cable. They have no one to blame but themselves when they only provide a single means to watch their programs, and people resort to pirating or sharing credentials. I know I'd be more than happy to pay 2 or 3 bucks for a one-time pass per episode.
The world is moving forward, and it's up to the entrenched media industries to move with it if they want a piece of the action.
Cable isn't available at my house (not even internet, I have to use a cellular data access point), I don't have a clear view for satellite, there are no FIOS options and you won't let me just subscribe to HBO Go so I can watch from my phone or whatever, give me a legal option and I'll take it.
Hell, I bought the previous two seasons already, I'd LIKE to buy this one.
Don't park drunk, accidents cause people.
Honestly the safest way is to torrent the stuff. These companies are hell bent on hating the consumer, so screw them.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Would love to. Please point me at the page on their website to subscribe to HBO-GO without Cable TV.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Sharing HBO Go Accounts Could Result In Prison
...but probably won't.
Next!
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
How about the page to subscribe to HBO-Go in addition to the cable I already pay for, but my cable company hasn't "enabled" it yet?
There is no indication of causality in your statement, only in your mind. There are more automobile deaths now than seventy years ago. Would you promote that this means cars are less safe now or that perhaps there are other factors to consider?
We whine and complain about the RIAA and MPAA suing people in bulk for sharing files on bit torrent. Our reasoning is that the record companies cheat the artists out of legitimate revenue and then they add on a new litigation-based business model so they can extract more revenue from people who may or may not have violated copyright. We justify some copyright violation as civil disobedience, because the media companies are criminals (in an ethical sense). There's a lot of truth and a lot of bullshit in that. I'm a fan of neither the media companies nor rampant copyright violation.
But with these subscription models, I don't see where you have room to complain. In general, we pay a small fee for access to unlimited streaming of digital content. If we don't like the price or customer service, we try another service. And the availability/uptime of these services is phenomenal. I'm a fan of subscription services, because I don't want to fill up my house with content that I'm only ever going to watch one time.
Anyhow, I don't get why you're advocating violating their terms of service. Do you think that all content should be free? That's absurd. The terms of service are generally "one account per household." Why is that so hard to accept? They're trying to make a profit so they can stay in business and continue to offer content, and they charge very reasonable fees.
Also, in general, sharing passwords is considered a no-no. Sure, if I have ssh on my home server, I can share passwords all I want, because it's MY SERVER. But if I share my passwords for my accounts at work, I can get fired. Why? Security breach, policy violation. For subscription services, it's a violation of terms of service. The punishment should be to have your account revoked to free up bandwidth for legitimate customers.
Indeed, since the ToS specifically denies you the right to have multiple accounts on Steam (commonly done to allow the account to be sold so the game can be sold, or so that a ban on one account does not ban all games on steam), many people doing so are just as "guilty" of computer fraud and misuse as this HBO case, even if you're NOT sharing your account.
But does Steam list prison as a consequence?
Or does it just say they'll kill your account and thus lose all of your purchases.
The "prison" thing is the headline-grabber here. Not that HBO is against you doing it.
..generally carry much stiffer penalties to compensate for the difficulty of enforcement, and to more effectively discourage breaking them.
Unfortunately, this doesn't work well as it creates a new group of criminals who are then likely to commit other crimes. They also engender contempt of the legal system and the police, leading to increased cheating in other areas.
You could call these laws "gateways to crime."
As long as the person who owns the service gives you the password then it's not stealing.
1. If I stole services like this, I wouldn't not have the stones to write about it anywhere, never mind the NYT.
2. The writer mentions that HBO is missing an opportunity because they don't supply some way for her to commiserate with other person (or persons) who are "sharing" her account!!!
This article isn't about whether HBO Go should be available to folks who don't subscribe to cable. It's about whether HBO (and Netflix etc) are going to try to catch folks for "sharing" accounts.
Seriously, we're not talking about starving people taking some bread for their family. We're talking about stealing money and jobs from others so you can watch TV.
Someone should fine the author of the article to get that point across. Last I checked, the NYT operates behind a paywall of sorts. That likely helps pay the person who penned this article. Can she not see the hypocrisy of her position?
WOW! Had to get that off my chest!
Cheers,
Bruce.
Bruce A. Knack
Silicon Surfers
Copying millions of them could be.
Service violators star in "Oz" and HBO watches you.
A rather convoluted way to say one of the following:
The nephew of the brother is either the nephew of the father or the child of the father.
A: Your cousin's former roommate
B: Your brother/sister's former roommate
C: Your former roommate
There is a very high likelyhood that Dark Helmet went to the dark side of the Schwartz because he was owed rent and the Lonestars are deadbeats.
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
This whole article is just a bunch of fear mongering. From the article itself: "If you used someone else’s HBO Go password to watch last night’s season finale of “Game of Thrones,” you probably don’t need to worry about lawyers coming knocking. HBO hasn’t expressed any interest in preventing password sharing. For starters, they don’t have much of an ability to police it. Only 6.5 million of HBO’s 30 million subscribers have signed up for HBO Go, so it isn’t really damaging their business model." HBO has already stated that they don't care if you pirate Game of Thrones. Why should they care if you share your HBO Go password?
So because someone happens to like a form of entertainment you don't they have a problem. Your mother must be very proud of the bigoted child she has managed to raise.
We haven't been paying customers for a long time. We've been paying product.
Try Directv.com or Dishnetwork.com.
They updated their smart cards. No joy. Good while it lasted though.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
The joke was that subscribing to satellite TV allows you to get HBO and the rest of the pay-TV bundle without subscribing to cable TV.