Sharing your Netflix, or ANY online password is now a federal crime

[ckf]

WASHINGTON —If you have a Netflix account -- or other online accounts -- you've probably shared your password with a friend in the past.

If you do, consider this your notice: It's now considered a federal crime.

Three judges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a ruling last week, that criminalizes all password sharing.

The decision comes as part of the ruling in the case of the United States v. David Nosal, which had to do with a man leaving his job but continuing to use the password of someone still working at the firm in order to download employee information, according to Fusion.

In a dissenting opinion, Judge Stephen Reinhardt disagreed, expressing concern that that decision by the majority criminalizes all password-sharing, including your giving out your parent’s Netflix password to your friends.

"This case is about password sharing. People frequently share their passwords, notwithstanding the fact that websites and employers have policies prohibiting it," Reinhardt wrote. "In my view, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act does not make the millions of people who engage in this ubiquitous, useful, and generally harmless conduct into unwitting federal criminals." 

[Rod]

**********

 

lol if you write your password to this site it blanks it out 

[Kivalo]

Something tells me there must some sort of intent to defraud or similar. If I wanted to give my brother my password to my email or google drive account I am fairly certain I wont be breaking any laws.

[ArcticCrusher]

What about 5 Russians sharing one Dish account?