Sharing HBO Go Accounts Could Result In Prison 221
coolnumbr12 writes "In a recent New York Times article called 'No TV? No Subscription? No Problem?' Jenna Wortham noted how she used, 'the information of a guy in New Jersey that I had once met in a Mexican restaurant.' Dave Their of Forbes admitted that he used his sister's boyfriend's father's account in exchange for his Netflix information. But this is stealing under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which makes it a misdemeanor with a maximum one-year prison sentence to 'obtain without authorization information from a protected computer.' It is also a violation of the Digital Millennium Copy Act because it is knowingly circumventing a protection measure set up to prevent someone from watching content like 'Game of Thrones' without paying. Forbes points out that a crafty prosecutor could also claim that using an HBO Go password without paying is a form of identity theft."
Problem. (Score:1, Insightful)
(:Damm, all the states are making pot legal... Who are we going to go after for nice easy busts so we look like we're working? Without going after real criminals who might shoot back? Not to mention we need to keep up with keeping our for-profit prisons full. Those guys paid us alot you know.
(:Well, what about computer users? Maybe everyone who shares accounts or break a EULA? Those people are pretty non-violent too. Heck we can even do this by mail.
(:Brilliant! Lets do it!
dumb (Score:5, Insightful)
Since when is sharing stealing (Score:5, Insightful)
A choice to make (Score:3, Insightful)
If you are facing the choice to either sit down in front of the TV or to go in the street and kick the living dayligths out of an innocent stranger, now you know which one is safer.
The Future is Now! (Score:4, Insightful)
Welcome to the new world where you are all criminals!
Now do what we say or we'll lock you away.
Re:Theft of Service! (Score:5, Insightful)
We're not talking about the lack of availability for a family-plan here.
This is about the lack of availability of a random-people-I-once-met-but-don't-even-know-their-name-plan.
As much as I dislike DRM, DMCA and big-content corporations in general, I can't really fault them on this one.
Story would have been a lot more interestinging if (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Theft of Service! (Score:5, Insightful)
I tried to turn myself in at the local police station. I told the officer there that I had borrowed a book from someone else. I had not paid for it. My friend has also read it. So, that's three people, in three different households, that have all read this book for the price of one!
The officer threatened to give me a fine for wasting his time, then sent me home.
Re:The Future is Now! (Score:5, Insightful)
When I was growing up, I thought that was how things were behind the iron curtain. Now I realized that the iron curtain was lifted, it merely shifted position so we're all behind the curtain now. . . .
Re:Theft of Service! (Score:5, Insightful)
As much as I dislike DRM, DMCA and big-content corporations in general, I can't really fault them on this one.
The fault with this situation is that the punishment should fit the crime, and in this case, clearly does not.
Are you really suggesting that the punishment for watching a bit of tv that you haven't paid for should carry a possible one year prison penalty? This is a non-violent crime which only has very small financial consequences. As such, the penalty should be a fine of some sort. What it would have normally cost to subscribe to the service, with a small punitive multiplier would be appropriate.
Taking someone's liberty for a year for such a small infraction is tyrannical in every sense of the word.
Re:Theft of Service! (Score:3, Insightful)
Just torrent it via a VPN service... (Score:5, Insightful)
Honestly the safest way is to torrent the stuff. These companies are hell bent on hating the consumer, so screw them.
Re:Theft of Service! (Score:2, Insightful)
For punishment that fits the crime: Anyone convicted of this type of stealing should be sentenced to watch TV for as many hours as they stole watching movies.
Re:dumb (Score:4, Insightful)
Sorry, serving up video isn't free. The company pays for servers, electricity, bandwidth, and the salaries of all the people required to make it work.
And the account owner pays for that. So if the account owner has a friend visiting and tells him "I wanted to watch [insert-a-movie-name-here] but I have to go get my car fixed, why don't you watch it instead?", where's the difference?
Re:Since when is sharing stealing (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Theft of Service! (Score:5, Insightful)
That would be a valid point, if you got to choose the minimum instead of the maximum.
Instead, you are threatened with the maximum, and history shows that it is very likely in any trial situation (especially regarding copyright or CFAA issues) the prosecution/plaintiff is going to go for the maximum because you dared turn down a plea bargain. It is prudent to assume that you must defend yourself to a level commensurate to the maximum pentalty because you cannot know that the prosecution will not seek the maximum penalty. In fact, the prosecution has an interest in seeking the maximum penalty in almost all circumstances. In persuing (or threatening) to pursue the maximum penalty if a plea bargain is rejected, the prosecution makes the plea bargain a hard deal to refuse given the high rate of convictions. If the prosecutor was known to not pursue the maximum sentence, then the consequence to rejecting a plea bargain is reduced and the negotiating position of the prosecutor is weakened.
From the perspective of the person targeted for prosecution, without any explicit guarantee that you would not face the maximum sentence, it makes sense to plan your defense around the very likely situation that you would face the maximum sentence.
Aside from public backlash, there isn't really any reason a judge/prosecutor/jury must apply the minimum sentence. Without any real pressure to minimize the sentence, it might as well not exist.
The maximum sentence is the measure by which a law must be evaluated, because that is the measure by which the government is bounded.
Re:Theft of Service! (Score:5, Insightful)
Prison should be reserved for people who pose a serious threat to society. Is copying a DVD and selling it a serious threat?