Legal Question in Technology Law in California
Password and User Name Sharing to Paid Services
Is it Legal for people with legitimate access to sites providing paid services (having paid properly) to share their access (username/password) with other people, and for them to then use it to access the site? What are possible consequences for it if it is not legal?
I ask because in a personal experience, the site blocked off the login completely because it was widely shared. In Fact, it also blocked off access from my IP entirely to the login page.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Password and User Name Sharing to Paid Services
When you activated your account you almost certainly agreed to terms of use which expressly said you could not share your access. The company makes its living by charging a membership fee to everyone who wants access; if what you did were proper then the company might only be able to sell a single membership only to learn that it had been shared with the entire world.
Imagine walking into an all-you-can-eat restaurant and trying to share your food with twenty friends and relatives for the price of one meal. Do you think your purchase price would entitle you to do this? After all, the deal was for all *you* could eat, and not all you could feed to others.
When you paid the web site for access, you were paying only for your own access and not for the right to give it away to others so that they could avoid paying for the services they used.
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