OTT news: Sharing Netflix password could soon become illegal in THIS country

To allow them to access the content on the streaming service, many Netflix users around the world give their account passwords to family members and friends. According to the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) in the United Kingdom, the practice may lead to criminal charges being brought against such users.

According to the IPO, sharing passwords for streaming accounts could be “secondary copyright infringement”.

As part of its increased efforts to persuade rogue subscribers to pay up, Netflix has already stated that it will begin charging users for password sharing early in the following year.

In guidance published this week, the IPO said: "Pasting internet images into your social media without permission, or accessing films, tv series or live sports events through Kodi boxes, hacked Fire Sticks or apps without paying a subscription is an infringement of copyright and you may be committing a crime."

An earlier version of the text made mention of password sharing, but IPO quickly deleted it. According to Independent, the government agency's spokesperson later confirmed that the law and its instructions remained the same.

The streaming giant is free to file a lawsuit if necessary, according to the IPO.

Customers who share their passwords with people they don't live with will now face stricter penalties from Netflix. Earlier this year, when announcing its first quarter results, Netflix stated that more than 100 million households worldwide use shared passwords, which had an impact on its revenue.

According to the streaming giant, more than 100 million additional households who do not pay for the television streaming service share accounts with the company's roughly 222 million paying customers.

According to a report in The Verge, the company had last year experimented with an account verification tool to keep unauthorised users from mooching off of others' accounts.