Disney Plus' Restrictions on Password Sharing Are Now Rolling Out To US Subscribers (theverge.com) 54
Disney Plus has started to inform subscribers about new changes to its terms of service that will, among other things, make it harder for people to access the service using log-in credentials that aren't actually theirs. From a report:The updated terms come a few months after Disney Plus implemented similar measures for its Canadian subscribers and just days after Hulu sent out similar notices to users about changes to its own TOS and its plans to stop password sharing in the coming weeks. Like Hulu's terms of service, the changes to Disney Plus' agreement are dated January 25th and are already in effect for new customers. Per Disney Plus' emails, existing subscribers can expect the new restrictions to go into effect on March 14th.
Good (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Iâ(TM)m tired of my cheap realities and in-laws asking for my password every time their pathetic smart tv logs them out. Get a real streaming device and get your own streaming subscription. Too expensive? Donâ(TM)t like their rates? Then donâ(TM)t pay it 12 months out of the year and shuffle around every few months. This idea you have to pay Netflix Hulu peacock paramount Disney hbo crackle whatever all at the same time is where I realize people are not that bright with finances.
I wonder what it would cost to have something like Comcast cable and have all the streaming services?
Anyhow, the streamers allowed password sharing in the same manner that the first hit from the drug dealer is free. Now they hope people are hooked.
Can't say that I care about Disney+ though. Maybe if they get a new batch of writers and start creating good content. I don't know where they got the current batch, but the stories just aren't very good.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I cancelled Disney Plus when it went woke. I just downloaded all the classics I really wanted, along with the Star Wars stuff I like. I subsequently cancelled all of my streaming services, and I only have Prime now, since that I really use for faster free shipping for my Amazon account. I wont pay to rem
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Good (Score:5, Informative)
That's what all those children beauty pageants [youtube.com] Christian moms enter their kids into are for.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I may have missed the joke but... how?
Cuties (Score:2)
Less sexualizing of children will be an added benefit [of subscribers dropping their service due to crackdowns on password sharing].
I may have missed the joke but... how?
I believe bill_mcgonigle was referring to the 2010 film Cuties [wikipedia.org], which Netflix picked up for distribution outside France.
Re: (Score:2)
Correction: I wrote the wrong year.
Cuties was a 2020 French film intended to criticize the sexualization of preteen girls, not to glorify it. And Wikipedia has an article section that's more directly about the backlash against Cuties [wikipedia.org].
Re: (Score:1)
Not really the use case of most people I know.
Almost everyone I know shares one service out and gets multiple services back as a result. So you might share D+, and get back Prime, Netflix, and HBO.
In my case, I share my current streaming channel with a girlfriend and over 90% of my consumption is at her house ( Honestly, I think it is probably over 98% as I've only watched 16 hours of content over the last 60 days at home. ) And frankly, we don't watch much at her house as we use other free services for
Re: (Score:2)
â(TM)
What causes this issue anyway?
Slashdot's deliberate lack of Unicode (Score:2)
It's a combination of two things. One is iOS keyboard producing smart quote characters that fall outside Basic Latin (ASCII). The other is Slashdot's deliberate lack of proper support for Unicode in comments due to past abuses by vandals. One was the "erocS" problem: abuse of control characters to reverse text, making other posts difficult to read and spoofing moderation scores. The other was use of non-ASCII code units to draw glyph art that circumvents Slashdot's filters against obscene or racist ASCII ar
Market Saturation (Score:5, Interesting)
They are coming to their peak, much like Netflix. It's the only way to up the revenue. They are realizing that without forced bundling with cable, their overall viewership is probably going to be permanently lower.
Cable was always a negotiating scheme doomed to price bloat. At least Netflix and Disney are maintaining the core service and trying to keep the list price relatively even now. Amazon is putting ads in their $140/yr. streaming service. Me, I just use the shipping and not the streaming but others are nearly all streaming and rarely shipping.
Whatever happens, there needs to always be ad-free options or the whole process starts over.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Is a price burden on me, you mean. I've been used to fund their TV production costs when I only want shipping.
I know neither Disney or Netflix are anywhere near as low as $50/yr. Who is still charging $4/mo?
Re: (Score:2)
Not Market Saturation, Enshittification (Score:3)
Disney Plus has now gathered a large enough audience that its subscribers are now trapped in and cannot easily choose another service. So it starts taking away every value it has for its subscribers, leaving just enough that they won't quit en masse.
After almost everything has been taken away, people leave screamingly, and the platform dies.
See also: Enshittification [wikipedia.org] on Wikipedia.
Re:Not Market Saturation, Enshittification (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes - that would be repeating the cable TV process all over again. Except nobody is trapped on Disney Plus. I am a current subscriber but I can easily turn that switch off. I can buy a digital or physical copy of the 1-2 shows on constant repeat and then nothing is lost. Netflix meanwhile will not sell any perpetual viewing rights to a show in any format except for a couple of fancy box sets for a couple of Stranger Things seasons.
The ruining of services is because of publicly traded companies' crazed seeking of perpetually increasing revenue. Most individuals would be happy with a good salary with cost of living adjustments, but publicly traded companies only care about getting raises every year or investors will quit. This isn't how publicly traded companies used to act, but it is a reality that ruins more than just TV services.
Most shows aren't even worth a re-watch, so streaming is just becoming a TV rental service for me. When I am done with one service, I rewind and return and subscribe to another.
Re: (Score:2)
Disney Plus has now gathered a large enough audience
I cancelled two months ago and there have no big complaints. The kids haven't even noticed as they are too busy playing video games. Disney is trying to cash in by raising prices and slowing the creation of new content, so I'm cashing out. Netflix has much more content, especially for kids, although it does cost about 75% more for a similar level of ad-free service.
Sailing the high seas (Score:4, Insightful)
Meanwhile, pirating is STILL FREE.
It's becoming more mainstream as these streaming services keep making themselves harder to use and more annoying.
Sure, some of us never stopped, but for the rest of you, welcome back!
Re: (Score:3)
Agree and in sometimes that actually works on in a streaming services favor.
I actually have signed up for AppleTV because I had "acquired" a couple of their shows and right now as a fan of science fiction I had enjoyed enough of their series that I actually want them to continue producing them. For All Mankind, Severance, Silo, and Foundation are all covering different scifi genres and I appreciate them for that.
Re: (Score:2)
As long as you've got the service, so it wouldn't cost any extra, give "Ted Lasso" a shot. It's not sci-fi (which is my usual thing, too), but it IS really good, and it also ends (for now, there are rumors) very well. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it because it's "a sports show" but it really isn't - they barely touch on actual futbol footage.
Re:Sailing the high seas (Score:5, Insightful)
Netflix showed massive influx of new subscribers when they cracked down. Clearly doing so is financially beneficial to the streaming service.
Only a very small percentage of folks will bother pirating and know how to do so. Oh no, people that already weren't paying for the content are still not paying for the content but instead using their own bandwidth and not being a drain on the streaming provider resources! And it makes it more work to get the content, as you mentioned. Pirating isn't the flex you think it is.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Who said I'm paying for anything? Here's a neat trick I employ: if I can't afford it, I don't buy it.
However, anyone who can't afford it anyway is morally okay to pirate the content in my book.?
Because they're entitled to it, right? They're entitled to take whatever they want because . . . reasons.
Re: (Score:1)
I also don't buy it. But I completely sympathize with people who are too poor to buy it. No harm is done to the person trying to charge too high a price.
Re: (Score:1)
That's nice for those folks who are entitled like you who can afford to pay any price for it.
However, anyone who can't afford it anyway is morally okay to pirate the content in my book.
Re: (Score:2)
Sure thing. Everyone should pirate. Because who needs to pay for the production of movies and shows? Everything's free because you're entitled to it.
No need to pay the actors, the production crew, all the administrative staff, the IT folks, caterers, and everyone else involved in producing something. They do everything for free.
I’ll be happy to pay for their product, right after they explain why they feel the product is still worth charging for.
Don’t pretend the audience needs to give a shit about administrative and production costs when the audience is here for ONE reason.
Re: (Score:2)
You're watching/listening to it so obviously the product is worth charging for.
Donâ(TM)t pretend the audience needs to give a shit about administrative and production costs when the audience is here for ONE reason.
If the audience doesn't care about everyone and everything that goes into making a production and the ongoing process to keep making productions, why
Re: (Score:2)
Don’t pretend the audience needs to give a shit about administrative and production costs when the audience is here for ONE reason.
If the audience doesn't care about everyone and everything that goes into making a production and the ongoing process to keep making productions, why should anyone produce anything at all? Whatever is made will just be stolen so no point in making anything.
Someone has to pay for the production. If the audience doesn't pay for it, no one will. Let me know when you find anything which is completely and utterly free of any costs to produce.
There’s plenty that is being offered today for “free”. You simply gave up your digital soul in exchange for that price tag. You are now The Product being bought and sold. The proof? There’s more offered for “free” now than has ever been offered before online. How the hell do you think all that is being paid for?
And my point stands. The audience is here for one reason; to be entertained. Production costs and payroll are not on the audience’s give-a-shit list.
Re: Sailing the high seas (Score:2)
Re: Sailing the high seas (Score:2)
Yes yes, it's all about THE ACTORS.
Quick question for you...
Were you even able to keep a straight face while typing that? I have to be honest, that's the most I've laughed today, thank you.
You're also fucking wrong, but the humor forces me to be grateful instead of angry. =)
Re: (Score:2)
Yep, my family is saving so much money now cancelling all these services. The shit content was already driving us away, but not getting the number of streams/screens you pay for was the final blow.
That's why understanding how things work (Score:2)
can save your family thousands a year. It applies to everything. Most people barely use their high speed Internet. A family of 5 will barely saturate their upload speed, so routing the streaming services through one home will not generally affect the services.
In reality most would rather pay for separate accounts than bother with the family interaction and/or the time to learn a bit about a subject. It interferes with their time on social media.
Traveling Users Are Left in the Lurch (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: Traveling Users Are Left in the Lurch (Score:2)
Re: Traveling Users Are Left in the Lurch (Score:3, Insightful)
That's why I would like to be able to access it, because we pay for it, and the companies say I can.
But I can't. And then I get real genius level responses like this, solving a problem they refuse to understand.
Re: (Score:2)
You are right.
If one is technically competent, you can set up a VPN to your home network to appear like you are still at home.
However this is far above the capabilities of most people.
A supposedly portable service has now been locked down geographically.
Re:Traveling Users Are Left in the Lurch (Score:4, Interesting)
but no recourse to solve the issue for a paying customer,
this is Slashdot, so:
0.) I'm assuming you're not using an LTE service or something else that uses CGNAT. .conf file and import it into Wireguard on your device.
1.) Get a dynamic dns address from no-ip or duckdns.
get an old desktop / refurb desktop / raspberry Pi.
2.) Install DietPi (https://dietpi.com/). During the install, add Docker-CE, Docker-Compose, and Portainer, and give it a static IP.
3.) Upon completion of the install, type 'dietpi-ddns' and configure your dynamic dns address.
4.) Use this to setup Portainer (https://www.howtogeek.com/devops/how-to-get-started-with-portainer-a-web-ui-for-docker/).
5.) Use this to set up wg-easy (https://github.com/wg-easy/wg-easy). You can either do the CLI-only method, or the parameters listed there within Portainer. Make sure to change the "WG_HOST" variable to your dynamic DNS address, and "PASSWORD" to something useful.
6.) Port Forward 51820 and 51821 TCP/UDP to your DietPi server.
7.) On your phone/laptop, Install the Wireguard client (https://www.wireguard.com/install/).
8.) log into http://yourdynamicip.com:58121... [yourdynamicip.com] (yes, it's regular http) using the password you made in step 5. Create a new profile for your particular device.
9.) Download the
10.) Un-forward 51821, leaving only 51820 forwarded.
Congratulations, in about 3 hours (if you're not really experienced) or 15 minutes (if you dream in docker-compose), you've got a full tunnel VPN that will ensure ANY device you have a config file on will route all its traffic through your home when you're away, avoiding this entire problem.
Is it crap that it's necessary? Yes. But it works.
Netflix actually hit me with it (Score:2)
Initially they only went after heavy users with the assumption that they'd sign up for separate accounts (which they did). I barely use it but between my house and my kid's there's been just enough to keep it around. If they start pushing into the lighter users they'll start to see cancellations.
Re: (Score:1)
I already did. After being their customer over a decade (and paying ever increasing monthly fees as the content quality constantly dropped (not always their fault as other rights holders started their own tiny streaming channels)), I cancelled months ago. When I do re-subscribe, it will probably be for 30 days. I'll watch the 16 hours of content they've built up that I'm actually interested in during that month and then cancel again.
Re: Netflix actually hit me with it (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
I can afford it, so I feel an ethical obligation to pay for it. And I'm rational so I also feel a self interest in paying for it ( creation of new content ).
If you are too poor to afford it, I have no problem with someone pirating it.
However, watching it while swigging your $4.50 iced latte' doesn't qualify as "too poor".
Re: (Score:2)
Getting very tired of this BS. I have tons of games I haven't played, books to read. Guess they don't want my money.
Losing a generation (Score:1)