Is sharing your Netflix password a breach of copyright law?

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Is sharing your password legal? 

Despite people frequently sharing their passwords for streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+, the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has said that such password sharing breaches copyright law. This is because individuals shouldn’t be able to access copyright-protected content without paying for that access. The IPO has contended that doing so could amount to a breach of contractual terms, fraud, or secondary copyright infringement that carries civil and/or criminal sanctions, which the Crown Prosecution Service hasn’t ruled out. 

For civil cases, the service provider would need to take legal action, whereas, for criminal cases, a police investigation would need to occur first. In both cases, the investigation of an individual who shares their password is unlikely to occur. Despite it being improbable, there’s a possibility that legal action could be taken against those who partake in password sharing. The IPO has made it clear that accessing online video streaming services without paying a subscription is an infringement of copyright, which may mean individuals are committing a crime.

What do video service providers say?

Despite the IPO labelling piracy as a “major issue” for the entertainment industry, it’s unlikely that online streaming operators will take legal action. Netflix estimates that as many as four million subscribers in the UK share their passwords and haven’t yet indicated that they’d take legal action against these individuals. Netflix appears to tolerate this and instead of pursuing the legal route, they’ve announced plans to offer subscribers wider options to add extra accounts/members for a small additional monthly fee. This approach taken by Netflix is arguably more lenient than that taken by Sky, the broadcaster and telecommunications company, which has taken legal action against consumers in the past.

Although the legal position in England and Wales is that password sharing does amount to an infringement of copyright law, service providers appear to tolerate this kind of consumer behaviour, despite it being harmful to their revenue. Service providers, such as Netflix, have shown a positive attitude towards customers, offering solutions instead of taking legal action. However, as password sharing is technically illegal, service providers could take legal action against consumers if they wished and the burden would be on them to bring the case forward.

In short, password sharing is a breach of copyright law and it does have an adverse effect on service providers in terms of their revenue. However, these companies are unlikely to take legal action against individual consumers.