Disney Plus preparing to crack down on Password Sharing with update Terms and Conditions

How often do you get an email from some website you are signed up to or service you subscribe to alerting you (as they legally have to) to an update to their legal terms. Well today Disney+ began advising customers of a new “Subscriber Agreement” with the devil hidden deep in the detail. Password sharing is out folks, just like Netflix, Disney+ is going to stop your account working outside of your home.

As was flagged in a corporate briefing back in August the company has been actively exploring ways to crack down on password sharing, something these companies see as restricting their account and therefore revenue growth.

Disney+’s email had single short sentence updates about 11 changes to their Subscriber Agreement. The fifth one is the one that matters, telling users “We’re reflecting limitations on account sharing and the definition of “household”

Upon inspecting the new Agreement this is where it all kicks in:

“Account Sharing. Unless otherwise permitted by your Service Tier, you may not share your subscription outside of your household. “Household” means the collection of devices associated with your primary personal residence that are used by the individuals who reside therein. Additional usage rules may apply for certain Service Tiers. For more details on our account sharing policy, please visit our Help Centre. We may, in our sole discretion, analyse the use of your account to determine compliance with this Agreement. If we determine, in our sole discretion that you have violated this Agreement, we may limit or terminate access to the Disney+ Service and or take any other steps as permitted by this Agreement (including those set forth in Section 6 of this Agreement). You will be responsible for any use of your account by your household, including compliance with this section.“

(Disney’s new Subscriber Agreement)

Solid legal grounding for them to crack down on password sharing, but unlike Netflix who had a similar statement about what defined a household in their Terms and Conditions for many years before their crack down, this is the first mention of this since Disney+ launched.

There’s no advice from Disney about when this will begin, but rest assured there will be a new subscription tier for those looking to create accounts for friends or family who don’t live with them – that will come, and it will drive up Disney’s revenue.

We’ll update as we learn more.