Sharing Your Netflix Password Could Get You Arrested Now

A recent court ruling states it could now be considered a federal offense to share passwords. Your days of binge-watching Orange Is The New Black on your friend’s dime might be over.

Despite Netflix CEO Reed Hastings publicly stating that he believes sharing passwords is a positive thing, a recent ruling by two federal court judges on cyber crime say otherwise.

While some streaming services actually outline on their Terms and Conditions (which no one really reads) that you shouldn’t share your password, they still make it possible for users to log in from multiple devices at once.

A case argued last October between the United States of America versus David Nosal sparked the issue.

Nosal had intentions to access and steal files from a computer at his old workplace. Given that he was no longer an employee, he used a current employee’s credentials to log in to the system. Nosal was accused of accessing a protected computer without permission, with ‘intent to defraud.’

Basically, they’re saying that sharing passwords is a form of hacking.

Judges on the case found him guilty based on the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), although another judge, Stephen Reindhart, argued that the case was more about password sharing.

“People frequently share their passwords, notwithstanding the fact that websites and employers have policies prohibiting it. In my view, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) does not make the millions of people who engage in this ubiquitous, useful, and generally harmless conduct into unwitting federal criminals,” Reindhart said.

While sharing your Netflix password is far from corporate espionage, that court ruling could open the door to some tighter laws.

Now, no one’s saying it will or won’t happen, but let’s just all pray that the law doesn’t hit until the very final episode of Game Of Thrones.