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Javaman

(62,534 posts) Mon Jul 11, 2016, 04:33 PM Jul 2016

Federal court rules that sharing your Netflix password is a federal crime

http://fusion.net/story/322602/password-sharing-illegal-rules-federal-court/

Three judges from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a ruling this week that will affect everyone from whistleblowers to your ex who is still, somehow, using your Netflix password to watch Jessica Jones. The court ruled that sharing passwords is a criminal act.

The opinion is the latest round of United States v. Nosal, a case that’s been bouncing around the courts for almost a decade. The case concerns David Nosal, a headhunter who used to work for a firm called Korn/Ferry. Nosal left the job in 2004 and recruited former colleagues who used the password of a person still with the company to download information from Korn/Ferry’s database for use at the new firm. For that, Nosal was charged in 2008 with hacking under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), a.k.a “the Worst Law in Technology.”

Several charges against Nosal were tossed out by a 2011 decision from a full panel of Ninth Circuit judges, which reversed an earlier decision and said that an employee couldn’t be charged for simply violating their employer’s computer use policy. Despite this, Nosal was convicted of remaining charges by a federal jury in 2013, and was later sentenced to one year and one day in prison.

The new Ninth Circuit decision was decided 2-1 in the government’s favor. Judge M. Margaret McKeown, in the majority, insists that Nosal and his co-conspirators “accessed trade secrets in a proprietary database through the back door when the front door had been firmly closed” putting the case “squarely within the CFAA’s prohibition on access “without authorization.””

more at link...

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in summation, even though we pay for it, our passwords are not our own.

this will have some truly long range implications.

15 replies

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Highlight:

Federal court rules that sharing your Netflix password is a federal crime (Original Post) Javaman Jul 2016 OP

Netflix allows for multiple profiles how are they going to prove it wasn't giftedgirl77 Jul 2016 #1

I agree... Javaman Jul 2016 #2

passwords from content providers have always been revocable licenses, not property geek tragedy Jul 2016 #8

It should be a crime yeoman6987 Jul 2016 #3

If I loan a book or a CD to a friend, am I a criminal? angstlessk Jul 2016 #4

You are permitted 2 or 3 in the same house. yeoman6987 Jul 2016 #9

Flattery will get you everywjere... angstlessk Jul 2016 #13

viewing movies for free is a lot different than stealing proprietary trade secrets nt geek tragedy Jul 2016 #5

Yep SickOfTheOnePct Jul 2016 #6

overheard at Sing Sing: ''what are you in for, brah? I killed four people in a courthouse." Gabi Hayes Jul 2016 #7

So much for not filling our prisons with non-violent offenders. Warren DeMontague Jul 2016 #12

Group W hobbit709 Jul 2016 #14

Woohoo! I'm a felon! Quackers Jul 2016 #10

I think the case had more to do with criminal intent, and nothing to do with Netflix bhikkhu Jul 2016 #11

Misleading article is misleading bonemachine Jul 2016 #15

giftedgirl77

(4,713 posts)

1. Netflix allows for multiple profiles how are they going to prove it wasn't

Reply to Javaman (Original post)

Mon Jul 11, 2016, 04:51 PM

Jul 2016

one of those profiles.

Javaman

(62,534 posts)

2. I agree...

Reply to giftedgirl77 (Reply #1)

Mon Jul 11, 2016, 04:51 PM

Jul 2016

I'm more concerned with the concept that your password is no longer your own.

geek tragedy

(68,868 posts)

8. passwords from content providers have always been revocable licenses, not property

Reply to Javaman (Reply #2)

Mon Jul 11, 2016, 09:01 PM

Jul 2016

in this case, the guy used his password to steal proprietary trade secrets from his own employer. that's an entirely different matter than just binge watching season 2 of Breaking Bad on a borrowed password.

yeoman6987

(14,449 posts)

3. It should be a crime

Reply to Javaman (Original post)

Mon Jul 11, 2016, 05:55 PM

Jul 2016

The ones sharing the passwords are stealing.

angstlessk

(11,862 posts)

4. If I loan a book or a CD to a friend, am I a criminal?

Reply to yeoman6987 (Reply #3)

Mon Jul 11, 2016, 08:42 PM

Jul 2016

This is absurd..you are already limited to two or three playing netflix at one time..

There are so many laws out there, I bet every one of us is a criminal!!

yeoman6987

(14,449 posts)

9. You are permitted 2 or 3 in the same house.

Reply to angstlessk (Reply #4)

Mon Jul 11, 2016, 11:08 PM

Jul 2016

CDs are actually illegal to give to someone if they copy it. I know you have great morals or you would not be here.

angstlessk

(11,862 posts)

13. Flattery will get you everywjere...

Reply to yeoman6987 (Reply #9)

Tue Jul 12, 2016, 08:12 AM

Jul 2016

..if I have an iPhone, tablet or any other mobile device I am not restricted to my home!

I just think all this creating criminals over lending a friend a password so they can see a movie is shades of 1984..I worry about how they plan to police everyone!

geek tragedy

(68,868 posts)

5. viewing movies for free is a lot different than stealing proprietary trade secrets nt

Reply to Javaman (Original post)

Mon Jul 11, 2016, 08:46 PM

Jul 2016

SickOfTheOnePct

(7,290 posts)

6. Yep

Reply to geek tragedy (Reply #5)

Mon Jul 11, 2016, 08:54 PM

Jul 2016

And the ruling stated that future courts need to look at the context of each case to decide whether or not it rises to the level of fraud.

Much ado about nothing.

Gabi Hayes

(28,795 posts)

7. overheard at Sing Sing: ''what are you in for, brah? I killed four people in a courthouse."

Reply to Javaman (Original post)

Mon Jul 11, 2016, 08:58 PM

Jul 2016

''Me? I shared my Netflix password with my sister.''

Warren DeMontague

(80,708 posts)

12. So much for not filling our prisons with non-violent offenders.

Reply to Gabi Hayes (Reply #7)

Mon Jul 11, 2016, 11:35 PM

Jul 2016

hobbit709

(41,694 posts)

14. Group W

Reply to Gabi Hayes (Reply #7)

Tue Jul 12, 2016, 08:14 AM

Jul 2016

Quackers

(2,256 posts)

10. Woohoo! I'm a felon!

Reply to Javaman (Original post)

Mon Jul 11, 2016, 11:12 PM

Jul 2016

Please hide me.

bhikkhu

(10,724 posts)

11. I think the case had more to do with criminal intent, and nothing to do with Netflix

Reply to Javaman (Original post)

Mon Jul 11, 2016, 11:18 PM

Jul 2016

Netflix allows two streaming users per account, so my kids or anybody can watch one thing on one device and I can watch something on another device. I think they deliberately allow that leeway, and deliberately make it none of their concern who uses the access as long as the account is paid.

bonemachine

(757 posts)

15. Misleading article is misleading

Reply to Javaman (Original post)

Wed Jul 13, 2016, 04:58 PM

Jul 2016

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2016/07/is_it_really_illegal_to_share_your_netflix_password.html

The two-judge majority seems to have no intention of making it illegal to share any passwords, ever; they explicitly dismiss such concerns as “hypotheticals about the dire consequences of criminalizing password sharing.” But the dissenting judge is clearly concerned the majority’s ruling will “make the millions of people who engage in this ubiquitous, useful, and generally harmless conduct into unwitting federal criminals.” In other words, the Ninth Circuit decision really seems to offer very little clarity about whether it’s legal for you to use your roommate’s Netflix password. All it clarifies is that if you resign from an executive search firm to start your own, competing executive search firm—and later ask your former executive assistant to provide her username and password so you can access proprietary information from your former employer—then that’s very probably illegal. (This lack of clarity and generalizable principles, by the way, is part of the reason that sorting out what the CFAA really means has taken us 30 years and counting …)

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