Share Your Password, Go to Jail

A law criminalizing sharing with your family or friends your password to entertainment services like Netflix and Hulu Plus takes effect July 1st and is causing quite a stir for consumers. The new law, which acts to enhance the theft of services law already on the books, is meant to thwart hackers, according to Hollywood executives. But as written, the law appears over-broad.

The law lacks language specifically targeting hackers and/or commercial users. It therefore has the capacity to capture average Americans, like family members sharing a Netflix password over multiple devices such as a Playstation, a computer and an XBox. If a family member travels a lot and takes a console or a computer on the road, s/he may then violate the law because s/he's now shared the password with family members back home. Merely leaving home could trigger criminal liability.

As with many new laws recently implemented to protect a shrinking entertainment revenue base, this one has the potential to quickly spread nationwide. Before it does, it should be narrowly tailored to address the stated issue of hacking. Otherwise, consumers should expect litigation targeting the purses of Middle Class consumers.

TN Passes Law Criminalizing Photos That Traumatize

Tennessee, the state that recently made it a crime to swap passwords on online entertainment networks like Netflix, has now criminalized posting photos that might cause viewers to become emotionally distressed.

The law makes it a criminal offense for anyone who "communicates with another person or transmits or displays an image in a manner in which there is a reasonable expectation that the image will be viewed by the victim." As for mens rea, a publisher must possess "malicious intent to frighten, intimidate or cause emotional distress" and must act without "legitimate purpose."

There are sure to be constitutional challenges to this law, which could have a chilling effect on many prevailing ethics in communication and entertainment, for surely establishing the 'legitimate purpose' element requires encroaching on well-established freedom of speech rights and also requires modifying or further complicating obscenity laws.