Tennessee: Netflix, Napster password sharing is “theft-of-services”

As noted in The Register article US state bans Netflix, Napster password sharing, the evil RIAA has been successful in lobbying Tennessee to make password sharing “for online content-subscription services such as Netflix, Napster, and SuperPass” a crime. Sharing one’s password in this manner is the digital age equivalent of loaning a friend a book or inviting a few friends over to watch a movie on DVD. And it could be handled contractually by the service provider, in any case. Why make it a crime? As the Register notes,

It’s now just as illegal for you to give a friend your Netflix password so he can stream Casablanca as it is to, say, tap into someone’s cable TV line, walk out of a restaurant without paying, sneak into a movie, or use someone’s car or “other moveable property” without their permission.

The RIAA was of course behind this. And they won’t stop with Tennessee, or at the state level:

The RIAA has also been pushing for increased penalties for illegal content streaming on a national level. Last month, for example, it expressed support for a US Senate bill, S. 978, which adds streaming to illegal uploading and downloading as felony-status criminal activities.

I have a feeling that if the Founders could have seen how the experimental copyright and patent clause of the Constitution would have turned out …. it would not be in there.