Attention Netflix Account Rule Breakers in Maine: Your Time Could Be Up

Netflix announced they're cracking down on account sharing

It's a threat we've heard forever - do the crime of sharing your Netflix account/password, pay the time of either being hit with some kind of fine or even going as far as being banned from Netflix. So far, it's all seemed like either empty threats or rumors. But according to what Netflix itself said just two weeks ago, we could be in for a rude awakening very soon.

According to Chengyi Long, the Director of Product Innovation for Netflix, while Standard and Premium subscribers have been able to take advantage of features like multiple profiles, the features

"...have also created some confusion about when and how Netflix can be shared. As a result, accounts are being shared between households - impacting our ability to invest in great new TV and films for our members. So for the last year we’ve been working on ways to enable members who share outside their household to do so easily and securely, while also paying a bit more."

While the "ways" mentioned by Chengyi won't be tested in the United States (but heads up to you, Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru), it sounds like once testing is done there, the US should buckle up. Especially with a study that was just released by the online gambling review site, Time2Play, which dives into the amount of Americans that are using someone else's Netflix account.

Maine is a huge offender of Netflix's Terms of Use Policy

According to Time2Play's study, while most states have a decent amount of "streaming swindlers," as they put it, most of New England are some of the biggest offenders. Massachusetts is the biggest, taking the #3 spot for biggest rulebreakers with 57% of residents incorrectly using someone else's account, Maine isn't that far off, with over half of the state (51% to be exact) breaking the rules.

The rest of New England tails off a bit on the offenders list, with New Hampshire being the most goody two shoes of the region with only 40% being rebels.

It's unknown exactly what will come out of Netflix's testing with Peru, Costa Rica and Chile with whatever their new plans are, but undoubtedly it will mean that it's going to cost us even more money if we're caught sharing an account with someone outside of our household.

Not something we want to hear when Netflix just recently jacked their prices up to $9.99/month for Basic, $15.49 for Standard, and $19.99 for Premium.

However, we may have a cheat code to avoid getting caught

This by no means is a foolproof plan since we're not even sure it works, not to mention we're safe to continue our Netflix life the way we have been for the last few years; however, when the time comes where they start the crackdown in the States, this may very well keep you in the free and clear.

As annoying as it will be to have to log in every single time you want to binge something, log out of your account after every single use. That way they can't see your account logged in from multiple places at the same time.

Worth a shot, but don't shoot the messenger if it doesn't work out!