Sharing Is Caring

I am pretty amazed how quickly online streaming of TV shows has taken over the world. I knew it was coming and that as download speeds got faster it would become more popular, but I thought it would take a lot longer for it to become the preferred way for people to watch old episodes of TV shows. (I'm not a huge fan, only because I still don't know how to get it on my regular TV. I have a big TV for a reason and refuse to downsize to a tablet.) In that regard, the online movie streaming service NetFlix should be applauded for being so ahead of its time. Not only were they smart to get the rights to so many cancelled but still popular shows, they recently started producing original material in an effort to bring in more viewers without having to pay a studio any fees. Honestly, NetFlix should be looked at as a beacon to the forward-thinking which is needed to succeed in the ever-changing world that is today's entertainment industry but instead they are often mocked for the very public blunders they make. First, they tried to split their online and mailing division into separate companies, which didn't work and was quickly cancelled after public backlash. Then today they said they would be offering a new service which allows you to pay more for the right to share your password with people... which you can do anyway. I swear, sometimes it's like they are successful in spite of themselves.

You see, it is all about customers sharing passwords. Currently NetFlix only allows an account to stream two shows at the same time. But what they notice is that often a single account would be streaming from two vastly different locations. (What a fun way to also let everyone know they are monitoring your streaming habits. Thanks for admitting that Big Brother is always watching, Netflix.) Anyway, the new 'family' service allows you to spend $4 more and stream as many as four shows at once, but what Netflix is really doing is trying to curtail the number of people who tell their friends they can use their Netflix account to watch a random episode of "The Wire". [Sidebar: I wonder about the people sharing their passwords with all their friends. It's a bit of a leap of faith in my eyes, especially now that I know NetFlix is watching what I stream. They make recommendations based on what you've previously viewed, so you'd better hope your friends aren't watching a bunch of weird stuff through your account. This could just be my irrational paranoia, since I am the kind of person who never even shared locker combinations with my friends in high school. Then again, it could just be that my high school friends were idiots and all their lockers were near mine.] Either way, Netflix needs to realize they are seeking honesty from people who refuse to meager $8 a month for their service. I don't have high hopes for this program.

However, this does go back to the always-fascinating issue of just who owns what when it comes to digital media. I'm just not sure how this works when it comes to streaming. I mean, if I buy a CD in my opinion I have every right to make a copy and give it to my friends. But, I didn't really buy the movie I watched through Netflix - I can't even save it to my hard drive and watch it later. So, the question becomes where does the line of ownership fall? While not advisable, any person who has an online account is allowed to do whatever they want with their private passwords. If I have a NetFlix account and want to let my friend watch a movie using it that is my right. I can understand why NetFlix would get upset if I started selling access to my account to people on the internet because then I am charging for a service without paying the rights fees. However, giving a personal friend free access feels like it should be within my rights. After all, if I had the physical copy of the movie mailed to me (which I am not sure NetFlix even does anymore) I can let a friend of mine borrow that copy, who can then lend it to their friend and as long as someone eventually drops it back in the mail there is no harm no foul.

I don't think password sharing is any more or less rampant than passing around DVDs is (was?), so I think the reason Netflix is suddenly so pissed is that now they have numbers to back up just how widespread the sharing network is and they see how many people like their service, but not enough to pay for it. Their biggest problem may be that there really isn't anything they can do to stop password sharing. They can't exactly start limiting accounts to specific areas because too many people move around too much for that to work. All you are going to do then is make a lot of people mad when their NetFlix account suddenly stops working when they are on a business trip. This may be one of those situations where a company just has to live with the consequences of working in an industry where the lines of ownership are very blurry. Besides, they should be happy just to be still in business because even though the ability to stream content is very popular at the moment it is not like the industry is idiot-proof (just ask Hulu+ how easy it is to screw up). Seriously, NetFlix should count their lucky stars they survived the previous public gaffs and that people have hung in with them even though I have never heard anyone who has a NetFlix account sound happy about it. If they need any more motivation to shut up and let customers share passwords if they want they should remember it could always be worse - they could be BlockBuster Online.