TENNESSEE WANTS TO BAN YOU FROM SHARING YOUR NETFLIX AND RHAPSODY PASSWORDS

From the desks of the same folks who have wasted millions (billions?) on unsuccessfully fighting music piracy comes this latest bit of crackpot legislation: the state of Tennessee is close to passing a bill that would make it illegal to share your Netflix or Rhapsody account, or, as the bill is worded, any “entertainment subscription service.”

Let’s pretend for a minute that there aren’t other more important issues the government of any state could be working and spending tax dollars on, like, oh, I don’t know, unemployment, public works, education, drugs, infrastructure, healthcare, security, pretty much ANYTHING. If the sharing of any “entertainment subscription service” is illegal, what of a doctor’s office with magazines in the waiting room? A bar that shows sports games on cable TV? Lending a set of of DVDs of a TV show to a friend? Before you know it it’ll be illegal to give your friend a bite of the donut you just bought.

Besides being outright ridiculous and a complete waste of resources, this regulation is also completely ambiguous. The bill’s supporters acknowledge that family members who live under one roof probably won’t be prosecuted under the bill, but where exactly do you draw the line? I get that the bill is aimed at large-scale password sharers, like for instance one account in an entire college dorm room hall, but the line’s got to be drawn somewhere and there are bigger fish to fry.

Ladies and gentlemen, our tax dollars at work.

-VN

[The Tennessean via Gawker]