Video Services May Use AI To Crack Down on Password Sharing (variety.com) 99
An anonymous reader shares a report: Still using your ex-roommates cable credentials to watch "Game of Thrones?" That may soon be getting a lot harder, thanks to new efforts to crack down on password sharing for pay TV and online video services. One of these efforts, launched by London-based Synamedia ahead of next week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), even uses artificial intelligence to uncover notorious password sharers. Credentials Sharing Insight, as the new service is being called, targets both casual password sharing as well as criminal enterprises looking to resell pay TV login information. However, the focus clearly is on friends and family taking their generosity a bit too far, explained Symanedia chief product officer Jean-Marc Racine in an interview with Variety this week.
[...] Most services have tried to curtail password sharing by limiting the number of simultaneous streams, with little else to go by to identify abuse. "Today, you are in the dark," he said. Synamedia's solution on the other hand digs through lots of data to cluster users based on their streaming behavior. This can include user's physical location (someone streaming from both coasts at the same time) as well as general usage patterns (someone streaming 24/7). The company can even take a look at the specific content streamed by a user to identify unusual patterns. Based on these clues, Synamedia trains models to score users on a scale of 1 to 10, indicating whether they are likely sharing their passwords or not.
[...] Most services have tried to curtail password sharing by limiting the number of simultaneous streams, with little else to go by to identify abuse. "Today, you are in the dark," he said. Synamedia's solution on the other hand digs through lots of data to cluster users based on their streaming behavior. This can include user's physical location (someone streaming from both coasts at the same time) as well as general usage patterns (someone streaming 24/7). The company can even take a look at the specific content streamed by a user to identify unusual patterns. Based on these clues, Synamedia trains models to score users on a scale of 1 to 10, indicating whether they are likely sharing their passwords or not.
GOOD LORD!! (Score:5, Insightful)
Geez - just cap the number of simultaneous logins to whatever your business is comfortable with (usually 2 or 3) and/or record the device IDs.
It's not rocket science people. But then AI is the new electrolytes... it's got wut plants crave!
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Hulu simply looks at the LAN or WLAN attributes like SSID or similar. If you connect from a mobile device that's not from the primary network, then you will be asked to login using this device to the primary network of account holder once a month. I know there are ways around this (well, visit your friend or relative once a month, duh), but this is as good as it gets, and I don't really know what AI will add to this.
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Yes it's an Algorithmic Implementation, but not what people think AI is.
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Or the ISP uses multiple routes and the first hop can change as much as someone with a dynamic IP.
Using LAN/WLAN SSID and Mac address is a sound idea. The MAC of the gateway is a pretty static identifier of a network.
Re: GOOD LORD!! (Score:1)
Netflix encourages sharing the account even in advertising. If you want 4 streams, you pay twice as much as for 1 simultaneous stream so there is not much loss from Netflix side of it.
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Automatic Data Processing = AI now.. (Score:2)
any fucking script running anywhere is AI.
it's bullshit.
but makes for a lot of AI experts of course.
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WTF DO YOU NEED AI FOR THIS?!
You don't...and I'm willing to bet that the only use of AI here is use of those letters in attention-grabbing headlines.
Seems like nowadays anyone who writes an algorithm in code classifies themselves as "doing AI"
Re: This has already been tried decades ago (Score:1)
And here i was thinkng an ISPs core buisness was selling access and badwith not counting the number of connected devices, why shuld they care if a given load from ther costumers comes from 1 ot 10 devices the net result on their nerwork is abbout the same, what am I missing here?
Re:This has already been tried decades ago (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm pretty sure when you signed up for these services that somewhere in the agreement they say you are not allowed to give your information to one million of your closest friends, or use the service in any other than for your personal enjoyment (i.e. no streaming it to the world).
If your next statement is along the lines, "I don't care what the agreement says", then you're the reason these companies are taking these steps.
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If you give the account info to a bunch of unknown individuals one of them is going to change the password and lock everyone else out.
Then you lose all your viewing history and favorite lists and they jack your plan up to the ultra premium 50 user 8K video plan until you can get the card canceled or regain access to the account.
So really you don't want to share your account with individuals you don't trust.
Pretty much best case scenario for sharing with a large number of people is they all turn out to be tr
leonine (Score:2)
The "agreement" foisted on customers is a one-sided leonine contract. It carries no ethical weight whatsoever. Moreover, should an aristocrat choose to contest it, its enforceability in kangaroo court is uncertain. Commoners, of course, have no legal rights in Soviet America.
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Who are these "commoners" you speak of? Plenty of individuals have successfully beaten large corporations and government at all levels. So please stop spewing that bullshit.
Re: leonine (Score:2)
"Plenty of individuals have successfully beaten large corporations and government"
Hahahahahaha - hoohoo - hee hee - hahahaha wheehee hahaha! That's a good one!
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You just can't handle the truth apparently. I'm not arguing that corporations and government don't wield excessive power, only that if you believe individuals can't make a difference, you're part of the problem.
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Pirate (Score:5, Insightful)
No, this is SlashDot. We pretty much just pirate GoT; using other people's credentials is way too much of a hassle.
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This. FYI if you're having trouble using the piratebay, even in the US, use https://proxybay.bet/
Check the status of thepiratebay.org here: https://pirates-forum.org/misc.php?page=tpbstatus
Again with the NOT A.I. (Score:2)
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FizzBuzz is AI? Do you need funding for it? I am looking for the next new thing. AI is where it is at!
Yes, please! So far, I can figure out if a variable is divisible by 3, or if it's divisible by 5, but the AI for detecting if a variable is divisible by 3 AND 5 has been a real challenge. I'm sure some funding will really help move it along. The name of my company is Cloud Artificial Blockchain Intelligence. We're leveraging blockchains in the cloud to use artificial intelligence to 3D print drones that are capable of livestreaming Ninja while he's playing Fortnite. It's going to be HUGE!
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Free yourself of useless garbage (Score:1)
There's a good way, and a bad way to deal with this.
The media industry is one of the few industries who treat their customers like absolute villians, and people don't seem to mind. Most of what's available on TV/Movies/Music is the equivalent of a 'mom blog list article on why dogs ARE children'. It's garbage. Just say no, and free yourself from the chains of abuse.
Read a book, surf the web for content YOU choose, visit friends, etc.
Not that hard.
Prediction (Score:5, Insightful)
This is effectively DRM and will lead to an increase in piracy. These dumbasses never learn.
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Here is what I don't get. If they allow you to have multiple simultaneous streams.. WTF do they expect? Do they think that you're going to watch 4 fucking things at once? That is moronic on their part if so. I paid for netflix for about 6 months, and only because I forgot to terminate my account. They have a garbage selection and anything that is good and people want to watch they remove. Fuck them. They and most of the rest of the industry don't deserve our money. How many times are they going to remake th
They can't just look at the IP addresses? (Score:2)
hmmm...
False Positives? (Score:2, Troll)
One stream at a time? (Score:2)
Re: One stream at a time? (Score:1)
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For the same reason the cable companies are not limiting your home to using one TV at a time.
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Streaming, though, can easily be tracked to a MAC address or something similar.
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Streaming services come with mobile apps, which again means that anyone who belongs to your household should be able to stream services, simultaneously if necessary, and from completely random places or devices.
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They do limit simulationus streams, but that only partially solves the problem.
Firstly a limit of one simultaneous stream still allows sharing if people live on different schedules. Secondly they know that families won't pay four times as much as single men. So following what the cable/sattelite providers do they allow an account to be shared within a household with a relatively small up charge for allowing multiple streams at once.
The problem for these streaming services is defining "same household", for t
Next up: Newspapers go after paper sharers (Score:2, Troll)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Let my ex take her profile with her (Score:5, Interesting)
I still share my Netflix with my ex. She's willing to pay for Netflix herself, but there is a problem. She can't take her watching history, ratings, and her list of bookmarked titles to her new account. When asked, Netflix say "meh, just start over".
Come on dudes, your devs could easily add account merges and splits (and while at it, give me an option to let me watch the end credits in full screen in peace). I'm not motivated enough to write a scraper/saver to copy her profile from my account to hers using Greasemonkey (the watch list is probably easy to get, but the entirely to watch progress and the simulation needed to bring every timestamp over might be harder on my end), and you guys don't seem either.
But hey, AI is cool. Decent profile handling is so meh. Don't forget the blockchain.
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Agreed. Or just a setting in the app to not auto-play.
Same goes for the stupid auto-play on browse too....
Suspicious Viewing Habits? (Score:2)
Taking viewing habits into account sounds pretty stupid. If that's the case it could literally flag your account if a babysitter comes over and watches Netflix while you're out.
I don't think an actual human could look at logs and necessarily determine if there's password sharing going on. An AI would likely be equally unsuccessful.
The current solution is probably the best one: place a reasonable limit on the # of simultaneous streams and call it a day.
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4 works fine (hell 3 works fine). Can it still be shared with grandparents? Absolutely. A few cases of of password sharing will be far less damaging to a streaming service than people getting locked out of their account for legitimate activity because an AI thinks they did something suspicious.
As to 3 or more children - I've got 2 children. The chances that both of them and the adults are all watching Netflix SEPARATELY at the same time has pretty much never happened. They're either doing something com