Hulu & Disney+ no pwd. sharing - does this mean no more mobile watching?

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

I just read that Hulu and Disney+ are going to stop password sharing.

Then I found myself wondering, how will this affect watching shows "on the road"?

Will it still be possible to watch episodes on a chromebook, Windows laptop, or Android phone on the road,
or will that be disabled by whatever they are going to do?

For example, I often let the students at our school watch an episode or 2 of a show on the smartboard in our room, which has a tiny 'netbook' PC on the back, and hooks up to the school's network. I also occasionally watch something on the Linux Mint PC that I built, after students have gone home. It hooks up using the public wifi at work.

I also have watched shows on my phone, using whatever wifi is available - such as in a hotel. Many times I have been able to 'screen cast' the show to the larger screened TV.

Will all of these activities be blocked under the new rules? I wasn't sure, exactly, how the new rules would impact things, going forward.

 

[purbeast0]

I'm not sure how they are implementing it, but password sharing isn't using multiple of your own devices to use those services.

It's when you give your password to a friend or family member outside of your household and they use their devices to watch stuff.

 

[nakedfrog]

You know, this seems like an excellent question to ask Hulu or Disney+ customer service.

 

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

I'm not sure how they are implementing it, but password sharing isn't using multiple of your own devices to use those services.

It's when you give your password to a friend or family member outside of your household and they use their devices to watch stuff.

I understand that, I'm just worried that whatever they do might essentially flag me watching elsewhere as someone sharing passwords, especially if their focus is on looking at whatever router is usually used.

 

[purbeast0]

I understand that, I'm just worried that whatever they do might essentially flag me watching elsewhere as someone sharing passwords, especially if their focus is on looking at whatever router is usually used.

Well that wouldn't be entailing password sharing now would it?

I am pretty sure they are doing more than checking how many devices are running something lol.

 

[lxskllr]

I am pretty sure they are doing more than checking how many devices are running something lol.

Such as? I might be running linux or windows(as far as they know) from exactly the same setup. Cookies and web storage regularly get cleared. My ip address can be from anywhere in the country without me moving a metre.

 

[purbeast0]

Such as? I might be running linux or windows(as far as they know) from exactly the same setup. Cookies and web storage regularly get cleared. My ip address can be from anywhere in the country without me moving a metre.

I don't know, I didn't write the code.

It seems pretty easy though to figure out what are "home" devices. Your IP address may be changing but your MAC address isn't.

I mean this is Disney doing this. They are doing more than just checking if you are running stuff on multiple devices lol.

 

[lxskllr]

MAC address is easy to spoof, and I used to do it all the time. If that's what they're doing, it's a wide open hole to share passwords. Might keep out the common riffraff, but any techie will get around it, and instruct their subordinates how to do it.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

MAC address is easy to spoof, and I used to do it all the time. If that's what they're doing, it's a wide open hole to share passwords. Might keep out the common riffraff, but any techie will get around it, and instruct their subordinates how to do it.

Link please

For *reasons*

 

[purbeast0]

MAC address is easy to spoof, and I used to do it all the time. If that's what they're doing, it's a wide open hole to share passwords. Might keep out the common riffraff, but any techie will get around it, and instruct their subordinates how to do it.

You're crazy if you think your average joe Disney+ parent knows how to spoof a mac address on a smart TV, iPad, or iPhone, let alone, even knows what a mac address is.

 

[lantis3]

Create or buy a VPN service and put all of your devices behind it

 

[lxskllr]

Link please

For *reasons*

You're crazy if you think your average joe Disney+ parent knows how to spoof a mac address on a smart TV, iPad, or iPhone, let alone, even knows what a mac address is.

This is just me searching...

How to find and change the MAC address on your iPhone (or iPad)

Do you own an iPhone or an iPad and wondering what’s your MAC address and how to change it? Would you like to spoof your MAC address or, the opposite, disable MAC address randomization on your Apple mobile device? If you answered yes to any of these questions, read on. Here’s how to find...

www.digitalcitizen.life

I picked Idevices cause theoretically, they'd be the most locked down. Not only do they appear to randomize MAC by default(so the services can't use that), it's trivially easy to change.

Anything easy like that will propagate in online spaces, and normies will learn how to do it. It won't be 100%, but people dedicated to borrowing passwords will figure it out.

Since it can't be MAC address, how do they do it? If it's as simple as not having simultaneous connections from different parts of the country, the VPN hack will get by that.

 

[purbeast0]

This is just me searching...

How to find and change the MAC address on your iPhone (or iPad)

Do you own an iPhone or an iPad and wondering what’s your MAC address and how to change it? Would you like to spoof your MAC address or, the opposite, disable MAC address randomization on your Apple mobile device? If you answered yes to any of these questions, read on. Here’s how to find...

www.digitalcitizen.life

I picked Idevices cause theoretically, they'd be the most locked down. Not only do they appear to randomize MAC by default(so the services can't use that), it's trivially easy to change.

Anything easy like that will propagate in online spaces, and normies will learn how to do it. It won't be 100%, but people dedicated to borrowing passwords will figure it out.

Since it can't be MAC address, how do they do it? If it's as simple as not having simultaneous connections from different parts of the country, the VPN hack will get by that.

Again I don't know - I didn't implement it.

If you all are so worried about it, shoot them an email lol.

But to be worried about using your stuff in a legit fashion and being worried about being knocked for sharing passwords is just irrational at this point.

With all of this stuff being so simple to spoof and you can find that in a quick google search, I'm sure whoever implement these measures is also aware of it.

 

[lxskllr]

I'm just curious. I don't have, and I'll never have a streaming service. Computers aren't magic. If they're gonna enforce password sharing, there has to be a way that isn't magical. I'm only tangentially concerned, cause drm never fails to fuck over legitimate users. It gives me something to point to and say "Fuck those guys", *cause I don't use anything that can be taken away from me.


*Aside from that Audible book I foolishly bought before checking what I was really buying. I cracked that though, so the book's fully mine, and I'll never own another Audible book unless they change their policy.

 

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

I'm just curious. I don't have, and I'll never have a streaming service. Computers aren't magic. If they're gonna enforce password sharing, there has to be a way that isn't magical. I'm only tangentially concerned, cause drm never fails to fuck over legitimate users. It gives me something to point to and say "Fuck those guys", *cause I don't use anything that can be taken away from me.


*Aside from that Audible book I foolishly bought before checking what I was really buying. I cracked that though, so the book's fully mine, and I'll never own another Audible book unless they change their policy.

I imagine it isn't too hard to record an audio book.

 

[lxskllr]

I imagine it isn't too hard to record an audio book.

It was a multistep process to break the encryption, but it didn't lose fidelity. Doing it completely analog would probably be conceptually easier, but with more manual work, and the files would be lower quality. There may have been other ways, but they weren't readily apparent when searching the web.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I'm just curious. I don't have, and I'll never have a streaming service. Computers aren't magic. If they're gonna enforce password sharing, there has to be a way that isn't magical. I'm only tangentially concerned, cause drm never fails to fuck over legitimate users. It gives me something to point to and say "Fuck those guys", *cause I don't use anything that can be taken away from me.


*Aside from that Audible book I foolishly bought before checking what I was really buying. I cracked that though, so the book's fully mine, and I'll never own another Audible book unless they change their policy.

My guess is since they’re a big company they’ll do what big companies do.
Send and email or letter or screen pop up to “warn” you that there are too many/unusual log ins. Likely IP address or MAC address or whatever. They will give you X number of days to comply or they’ll add $Y dollars per month.

 

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

My guess is since they’re a big company they’ll do what big companies do.
Send and email or letter or screen pop up to “warn” you that there are too many/unusual log ins. Likely IP address or MAC address or whatever. They will give you X number of days to comply or they’ll add $Y dollars per month.

Good luck with them doing that - I bought 3 years (1 year each) of Disney Plus, associated with 3 of my email addresses. I activated one, and am waiting about a year and a half to 2 years between activations, to maximize the # of things to watch when I activate.

The credit card I used to prepay for each of the years has long been gone. I nabbed them for $70 a year, some sort of workplace deal that was offered, which comes out to $5.83 a month for the no commercials version. Not bad, but I wish they offered some way to "pause" the subscription for even more value. This time, I'm waiting until the full season of Dr. Who is available, to increase the likelihood that I could get next year's episodes, too, on the same 1 year subscription.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Probably goes by IP address although it would need to be more than just that since home IPs are dynamic. It probably profiles the main machine that you use it off of more often (ex: HTPC) and generates a unique key of sorts, and when you go to add a new device, it will need to be on same IP as the primary device maybe. Just guessing but that seems like a logical way to go about it.

Seems to me these streaming companies are turning into the same greedy assholes they were met to replace. Switch to something like Jellyfin instead. At least you don't have to worry about shows being pulled off on you.

 

[highland145]

For netflix....If you have multiple WiFi connections at your home or WiFi networks with different external IP addresses, you will need to use the one that you use the most to set a Netflix Household on your TV. Anyone who doesn't use the same WiFi network as your primary device is will not be a part of your household.

Article said that if you haven't logged in the home wifi for a month, you'll get the boot. Unless it's changed, hulu live only allows 2 streams anyway.

 

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

Curious if there is a way to redirect one at a remote location to use your home router.

 

[WelshBloke]

Link please

For *reasons*

Pretty sure that my phone defaults to a randomised MAC address.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Good luck with them doing that - I bought 3 years (1 year each) of Disney Plus, associated with 3 of my email addresses. I activated one, and am waiting about a year and a half to 2 years between activations, to maximize the # of things to watch when I activate.

The credit card I used to prepay for each of the years has long been gone. I nabbed them for $70 a year, some sort of workplace deal that was offered, which comes out to $5.83 a month for the no commercials version. Not bad, but I wish they offered some way to "pause" the subscription for even more value. This time, I'm waiting until the full season of Dr. Who is available, to increase the likelihood that I could get next year's episodes, too, on the same 1 year subscription.

They just won’t renew at the low rate. This is what big companies do

 

[dullard]

Such as?

It looks like you are thinking of easily spoofed hardware address detection only. It wouldn't be too hard for Disney+, Hulu, etc. to determine just from the shows watched that there is more than one person watching. It isn't like two people have the exact same watching habits (types of shows viewed, clock time viewing, day of week viewing, # repeat views of the same show, break time between viewing shows, length of viewing sessions, response time when selecting shows, how do you find/navigate to the shows you are watching, websites you visited prior to watching shows, locations of devices you forgot to spoof GPS on, how you move the cursor around, etc). Telling things apart from subtle differences in large data sets is exactly what AI does exceedingly well.

That is roughly how the "I'm not a robot" checkbox works. Robots and humans tend to NOT have similar habits of moving cursors around, timing to find the "I'm not a robot" checkbox, timing until the robot does the next task, previous websites visited, etc..

And even if you could exactly sync your viewing habits with someone else, then what? You have successfully stolen one payer when they have millions of accounts that would be caught by the methods listed above. It wouldn't even be a noticeable drop in the bucket to them. They aren't going for perfection, they are going for catching the low hanging fruit of potential subscribers.

 

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

It looks like you are thinking of easily spoofed hardware address detection only. It wouldn't be too hard for Disney+, Hulu, etc. to determine just from the shows watched that there is more than one person watching. It isn't like two people have the exact same watching habits (types of shows viewed, clock time viewing, day of week viewing, # repeat views of the same show, break time between viewing shows, length of viewing sessions, response time when selecting shows, how do you find/navigate to the shows you are watching, websites you visited prior to watching shows, locations of devices you forgot to spoof GPS on, how you move the cursor around, etc). Telling things apart from subtle differences in large data sets is exactly what AI does exceedingly well.

That is roughly how the "I'm not a robot" checkbox works. Robots and humans tend to NOT have similar habits of moving cursors around, timing to find the "I'm not a robot" checkbox, timing until the robot does the next task, previous websites visited, etc..

And even if you could exactly sync your viewing habits with someone else, then what? You have successfully stolen one payer when they have millions of accounts that would be caught by the methods listed above. It wouldn't even be a noticeable drop in the bucket to them. They aren't going for perfection, they are going for catching the low hanging fruit of potential subscribers.

I don't feel that I have stolen a viewer. When I pre -purchased the years of Disney+ several years back, for $70 a year, I verified that it supported several simultaneous streams. I also verified that they allowed these viewers to be in different physical locations.

So, of course, they have changed the terms years after I bought the service. I feel that these years of service should be grandfathered in under the original terms that were effective at the time of purchase. There is no way my friend would ever pay for Disney, but he does occasionally watch a Marvel movie.