Data broadcasting services are booming now, be they movies, series, music or audiobooks. Currently, the family business feature is available in many online broadcasting services such as "Netflix", "Apple Music", "Deezer", "Amazon Prime Video", "Tidal" and "Spotify".
These subscriptions allow the account to be shared between multiple users, in which case the value of the subscription is much cheaper compared to the individual subscription, but the password may only be shared with the people who live in the same home.
Terms and Conditions
"The value of the family subscription appears from two people," said expert from the German portal "Teltarif.de", adding that although the "Premium" subscription to the "Netflix" service allows simultaneous access to only four devices, The general terms and conditions of the service allow, in principle, to register an unlimited number of devices, and if the broadcast takes place at different times, theoretically one account can be used by tens of users.
He added that the general terms and conditions of the "Netflix" service stipulate in theory that the service and all content should not be shared with people, who do not reside in the same house, and this means that there is no problem in sharing content with neighbors and relatives, who live in the same house, while it is prohibited Do this with the rest of the people.
He pointed out that, the reality is often different, as many users pass the service access data with their friends, acquaintances and colleagues, and the companies that provide the service usually know this.
For his part, the spokesman for the "Spotify" service, Marcel Groppi, explained that this data is recorded accurately, but it is not possible to announce the exact numbers of such cases.
Sky also responded with the same answer, confirming that it does not want to comment on "specific cases", and that some services do not respond to such requests.
Termination of service
However, what happens when friends use the user’s account? Here, Jens Vosban, a lawyer specializing in copyright and media law in the German city of Dusseldorf, answers: "If this happens, the service can be terminated immediately due to a violation of the contract."
Although the general terms and conditions for almost all broadcasting services explicitly state that an account may only be shared within a single family, the "Maxdome" service also states that passwords are not passed on to third parties, while the "Deezer Family" service requires that all users reside in The title itself.
And the service "Sky" is more specific, as it states that the user, who makes his account available to others, becomes subject to a contractual penalty, as he has to pay the value of the subscription.
The company has not disclosed whether this penalty has already been imposed, however Jens Vosban believes that the company providing the broadcast service must provide evidence that the user passes the access data to others.
The German lawyer added that in the event of receiving a complaint from the company, it is easy for the user to refuse, indicating that it is difficult to follow up on such cases, which are difficult to prove, then family members may operate broadcast services during business trips or holidays, and it is difficult to verify the person, Who is sitting in front of the operator machine.
Address data
The German "Teltarf.de" portal indicated that no case has been announced in which the account was banned or the contract was canceled by a user.
However, Spotify began randomly requesting family subscribers to submit address data regularly.
The company announced that it has been performing such procedures for a long time, and if there are any differences in the address data, it requires clarifications from the main customer for the Family Master.
In the worst case, people who have given different address data are removed from the family subscription, or the subscription is changed to the normal type, and the address is queried with Spotify by entering the address or via the map.
The company does not require any user to provide a registration certificate or the like, so it is unlikely that any legal consequences will arise from the data provided, and it appears that companies providing broadcast services want to educate their customers.