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Disney+ has started cracking down on password sharing in the US

Disney+ started getting strict about password sharing in Canada last year, and now it's expanding the restriction to the US. According to The Verge, the streaming service has been sending out emails to its subscribers in the country, notifying them about a change in its terms of service. Its service agreement now states that users may not share their passwords outside of their household "unless otherwise permitted by [their] service tier," suggesting the arrival of new subscription options in the future.

The Verge says Disney+ told subscribers that they can analyze the use of their account to "determine compliance," though it didn't elaborate on how its methods work exactly. "We're adding limitations on sharing your account outside of your household, and explaining how we may assess your compliance with these limitations," Disney+ reportedly wrote in its email. In its Service Agreement, the service describes "household" as "the collection of devices associated with [subscribers'] primary personal residence that are used by the individuals who reside therein." The rule already applies to new subscribers, but old ones have until March 14 to feel its effects.

M500 ,

I am from the US, my wife is not. I live in her country and Disney releases a different app for each country.

This is a problem, because I have the US app store and she has the app store from her country. So, I cannot log into our disneyplus account on my phone. Or I can get the app and subscribe then, she can't login.

I'd switch my account to the country where we are living, but I can't or I'd lose access to some of my banking apps. So, I don't even have a way to watch it without getting two subscriptions.

reverendsteveii ,

raising prices, adding ads and cracking down on shared accounts all have me LOOKing for a place to get a MOVIE 2 watch without messing with a DOT TOrrent file

Cyberflunk ,

Crack down all you want little mouse.

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reddig33 ,

Disney lost 1.3 million subscribers last quarter. I’m sure this will help. 🙄

graymess ,

It worked for Netflix. It's easy to scoff at the clearly customer-antagonistic policies these services are turning towards, inevitably accompanied by the "well, they lost me as a subscriber" flood of comments. But the unfortunate truth is the vast majority of people just shut up and pay, resulting in big net income for the corporations that enact these policies.

reddig33 ,

I’m not sure that it actually did work for Netflix. I’ve seen at least one article claiming that Netflix lost subscribers in western markets after the change, but also added large numbers of subscribers in developing markets where the subscription price was much cheaper. Netflix spun this as “we added more users last quarter.”

taanegl ,

I've started cracking down on Disney+, and I'm getting flack for it. It's all "why did you dropkick our TV", "how did you get in here", "we're calling the police" bla bla bla bla. I'm just trying to help! Geez.

Matty_r ,
@Matty_r@programming.dev avatar

Sometimes the people that need the most help, don't even realize it. Keep fighting the good fight.

sebinspace ,

Demonoid never gave a shit about sharing my password :D

RavenFellBlade ,
@RavenFellBlade@startrek.website avatar

So my child, who is not old enough for their own account, will now no longer be able to watch Disney+ while attending school at their residential academy 400 miles away. Just like Netflix. And just like Netflix, my subscription will be canceled the moment they try to block them from logging in.

GladiusB ,
@GladiusB@lemmy.world avatar

Or my child, who shares a house with my ex wife in his laptop that I paid for...

nicetriangle ,

Password crackdown aside, I don't really get the appeal of the service unless you have kids or an abnormally large boner for Star Wars and MCU

trumpetmouth ,

no one's ever told me it's abnormally large before - I'm blushing!

HeapOfDogs ,

I tried out Disney and it came with Hulu. All I watched was Hulu. Both cancelled.

misterundercoat ,

(takes a sip out of 1999 The Phantom Menace Taco Bell promotional cup)

I don't know what you're talking about.

rjthyen ,

Just get the service for a month and drop it after catching up on the things you want. I keep it so I can watch bluey with my daughter, but I rotate most of my services.

nicetriangle ,

I think the next thing they're gonna do is go after people who sub for a month and then unsub. Probably by charging a good bit more for month-to-month than paying annually.

AA5B ,

They already release shows weekly, to encourage people to keep their subscription

rjthyen ,

Might miss out on a one time deal that locks your price for a year, but even if its fifteen bucks for a month to catch up on things I want to watch I'm fine switching services each month.

freedumb ,

I only subscribe to watch X-files and Always Sunny. Couldn't care less about Marvel, Star Wars or Disney stuff.

mundane ,

The STAR section has some good things.

lemmyvore ,

They have a good collection of movies and series. They've also started diversifying, bringing in some anime, some documentaries...

RavenFellBlade ,
@RavenFellBlade@startrek.website avatar

So my child, who is not old enough for their own account, will now no longer be able to watch Disney+ while attending school at their residential academy 400 miles away. Just like Netflix. And just like Netflix, my subscription will be canceled the moment they try to block them from logging in.

AA5B ,

And now Percy Jackson

reverendsteveii ,

I don't understand why you'd pay for this unless you like the content

Rajtinka ,

Meh. I cancelled Netflix when they did it and I cancelled my Hulu bundle when I got the email a couple of days ago. I know I won't make a difference, but I also won't miss either one of them.

joyjoy ,

I'm sure just like Netflix, it will only effect Smart TVs. Netflix never stopped you from watching on your phone or browser.

LaunchesKayaks ,
@LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world avatar

I can get around password sharing rules on every streaming service that has them by using my phone and mobile data lmao.

firadin ,

Netflix recently stopped me from casting to my tv from my phone, which used to work fine

JCreazy ,

I decided I would help Disney out with their password sharing problem by canceling my Disney Plus account a few months ago. No, they never have to worry about it again.

shasta ,

Too early though. Now you won't show in their metrics as someone who cancelled due to the crackdown

SirSamuel ,

Oddly enough, the price hikes earlier last year were enough to move me to spend four times as much as an annual subscription for a NAS and 16TB of storage. I made digital backups of my media and set up my parents and sister's family with Jellyfin accounts to access my media as needed. Now they can watch videos of our wedding and my niece's dance recital from the comfort of their living rooms. All without worrying about arbitrary changes to TOS. And I'm learning about all kinds of horrible children's shows. OTOH my niece and nephew are learning about cool things like Batman: The Animated Series and Tiny Toons.

I've only run into a couple small issues when it came to backing up my media, but I'll get them sorted.

joyjoy ,

four times as much as an annual subscription

If you're gonna waste money, you might as well waste money on something big.

SirSamuel ,

It's not a waste, it's an investment lol

CurbsTickle ,

Confirmed

I've got... A rather large storage pool.

My media server also handles family movies, including VHS from the 80s I've converted and cleaned up.

Server itself is a cheap off lease dell micro I bought several years back for $125, added a $50 nvme SSD, and the igpu has been chugging along transcoding beautifully since.

Same system also runs a separate book/comic/etc service, backup DNS, a generated kid safe "channel" that is available on the media server, all my dslr photos are on there, etc, etc.

Which then for what is crucial to me gets a local and a remote backup.

At this point I've saved money over paying for subscriptions, and I use it for a whole lot more (so even more savings on top).

Eggyhead ,

I'd like to use Jelly Fin, but it has not been a great experience for me on a Mac with an Apple TV. HDR doesn't carry over, some videos are blocked due to music licensing or something, and the library syncing doesn't always work. I'm not sure if it's a Jellyfin problem, a lack of support for Mac hardware, or just my personal incompetence with this sort of thing (very likely). I managed to get Plex to work without issue, so I'm using that even if I don't really like the UX all that much.

SirSamuel ,

First off, I'm by no means even close to an expert. More of a spurt, in fact.

I tried Plex but wanted to give remote access at varying levels, which, to my understanding, requires paying for a subscription to Plex Premium or some such. Basically I wanted to be able to see my sexy home videos from anywhere, let my parents see my wedding videos and their granddaughter's dance recital, and let my niece see her dance recital only (to painfully stretch a metaphor).

Jellyfin has it's limits. It's easier for my needs in part because my family has Roku, and there is a built-in app for Jellyfin on Roku devices. I have a Samsung TV and haven't taught myself how to sideload Jellyfin into my TV. The app works great tho, so I can watch things on my phone or laptop with ease while on vacation. I probably spent a few hours teaching myself about port forwarding, VPNs, and such. I bought a Synology NAS, which simplified things quite a bit.

Anyway, I'm not at all familiar with Apple products. Nothing wrong with them, mind, I just never liked the walled garden ethos

lemmyvore ,

See if the TV supports DLNA by any chance, Jellyfin does, so all you'd need would be a DLNA controller app on your phone to make one cast to the other.

Alternatively, there's a self-hosted app called BubbleUPnP Server that can DLNA-enable (some) things without native support. I know for a fact it can do it for Google devices, maybe it can do it for Samsung too.

1hitsong ,
@1hitsong@lemmy.ml avatar

It’s easier for my needs in part because my family has Roku, and there is a built-in app for Jellyfin on Roku devices.

🤘 Hope it's working well for y'all.

SirSamuel ,

Yarr, it surely be

Dudewitbow ,

i dont even sub to streaming services and currently building my media server (5x 12tb drives in zfs z2) just for archival and setting up a service for some family inthe case they want to bail. aa prices fo up, people are just going to look for a diy way at some point.

SirSamuel ,

I understood some of those words lol

I was toying with the idea of a home made server using an existing case and a mini atx, but then i ran across a 16TB NAS HDD for like $240 at microcenter and just decided to go the simple route, picked up a two bay Synology case and the rest is history

Dudewitbow ,

zfs is just a disk file system format (e.g like fat32, exfat, ntfs), z2 for laymen is basically double parity drives (drives are setup that 2 drive worth is used as data integrity, so in the case of a dead disk drive, data isnt lost and can be repaired. z2 offers 2 disks can die before recovery is finished (meaning requires 3 drives to die to actually lose data))

cooopsspace ,

The great part is you own it at the end of it.

Even then, I've had hard drives last 10 years. But YMMV.

the_q ,

🏴‍☠️

Assman ,
@Assman@sh.itjust.works avatar

If we can't use my MIL's account I will pirate the shows instead

ISometimesAdmin ,
@ISometimesAdmin@the.coolest.zone avatar

Damn, Steamboat Willie going into public domain really has Disney tightening the purse strings /s

MisterD ,

They're going to need that money to settle the lawsuit from Gina Carano funded by Elon Musk.

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