The Disney+ password-sharing crackdown is arriving earlier than expected. The House of Mouse is already setting its sights on Canada, with restrictions to be imposed in the country from November.
Engadget reports that Disney has emailed Canadian Disney+ subscribers informing them that it will soon prohibit them from sharing their password outside their household. This was affirmed in a new segment added to Canada’s Disney+ subscriber agreement, which is set to come into effect on Nov. 1.
“[Y]ou may not share your subscription outside of your household,” Disney states in the updated subscriber agreement. “‘Household’ means the collection of devices associated with your primary personal residence that are used by the individuals who reside therein.”
We’ve known this move was coming since August, when Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed the company’s intention to stop password sharing during its third quarter earnings call. However, the restrictions initially weren’t scheduled to be implemented until next year. It appears the timeline has been moved up significantly, with Canadians to get less utility from their Disney+ accounts in just a few months.
“We may, in our sole discretion, analyze the use of your account to determine compliance with this Agreement,” reads the agreement. “If we determine that you have violated this Agreement, we may limit or terminate access to the Service and/or take any other steps as permitted by this Agreement.”
The amended subscriber agreement does carve out one exception to the ban on account sharing. Disney states that the restriction only applies “unless otherwise permitted by your Service Tier,” indicating that it will likely introduce new subscription plans that allow password sharing across households.
We currently have no further information on what these tiers may look like. But it isn’t unlikely that Disney will continue to follow in Netflix’s footsteps, and charge users an extra monthly fee to enable people outside their household to use their account.
