Sharing Your Netflix Password Is Now a Federal Crime
A federal appeals court ruling means that millions of people could be considered “federal criminals” for sharing passwords for services like Netflix and HBO Go.
The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision came last week in the case of a former employee at a headhunter firm, who used his former assistant’s login information to log onto the company’s database as he prepared to launch a competing firm.
The former employee was eventually charged with conspiracy and theft of trade secrets. He was sentenced to prison time, probation, and nearly $900,000 in restitution and fines.
The man’s conviction was based on the law that makes it a crime to “knowingly defraud and access a protected computer without authorization.”
One of the judges in the appeals court said the new decision also makes “consensual password sharing” a prosecutable offense, which loses sight of the anti-hacking purpose that the law was really intended for in the first place.
