Sharing your Netflix (ticker: NFLX) password might seem like an innocent act, but a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling last week could lead to significant repercussions for borrowing passwords. That’s right: “Orange Is the New Black” might get a little too meta when it’s you in the prison gear.
The court upheld the conviction of a man, David Nosal, who used a former co-worker’s password to access into his past workplace’s network. He had already received a year and a day prison sentence.
But the real question on everyone’s minds is simple: Will this mean a crackdown from streaming services like Netflix and HBO Go (TWX) on password sharing?
Don’t worry just yet. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has been a fan of account sharing, reports TechCrunch.
“We love people sharing Netflix whether they’re two people on a couch or 10 people on a couch,” Hastings said at the Consumer Electronics Show. “That’s a positive thing, not a negative thing.”
This doesn’t necessarily apply to non-family members, as Hastings specifically alluded to children using their parents’ accounts and then becoming individual subscribers later as a means of rationale.
Despite a recent surge, Netflix stock is down 17 percent this year.
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Is Sharing Your Netflix Password Illegal? originally appeared on usnews.com
