I've been actively trying to stop sharing with my family. I want my own account! But Netflix provides a terrible experience for doing that. There is currently no way to migrate my history and preferences to a new account. The profile transfer feature is currently unavailable in this country, so in order to get my own account I need to not only pay them, but also start over with years of history and preferences.
Netflix seems to recognize that the data that it associates with me has value; they did after all famously run that $1M contest back in the day to improve recommendations. So it's not just that this data has value to them, but also it has value to me. I'm surprised they don't think I'd want to keep it around.
Why not start with the low-lying fruit? let people move their darn profiles to a new account! I bet they'd get some switchers even without adding the "incentive" of a penalty for password sharing.
It reminds me of the piracy "debate". For me, it's easier and more convenient to stay sharing an account, even though I would be willing to pay for a new one. They're giving me a negative reason to buy. Yet they're focusing on enforcement, assuming I'm just a mooch. But I want out! Just make it easy for me to switch!
I get the feeling Google should've turned around and used those 500M (which they'd already "put aside") and use them for pure lobbying.
Heck, we read story after story about all sorts of "taxes on innovation" levied against Google and other companies by all sorts of members of the old guard. Well, some of these tech companies happen to have a bunch of cash at hand, and they don't seem to be spending nearly as much of it lobbying as, say, the recording industry, which wouldn't be able to match them dollar for dollar.
Is it the "Do no evil" thing? Is it an inherent disgust for having to pay politicians to be able to make money as opposed to having the best product out there? I can certainly understand that disgust, since the mere idea would seem appalling to me (why should I have to do that? And how is it even moral?). But, hey, 500M is not chump change. And it accumulates.
I'd see it as the least of all evils. They could easily convince themselves that they'd be fighting a crusade that'll make everybody better off.
Pharma pressing on you? Spend 500M on politicians instead of just giving it away, see how that works. Recording industry wants to break the internet? 200M should fix that. Patent system is broken? Pay 12.5B for some patents with some production on the side? Hell no! A tenth of that will probably buy you either of the 2 political parties. Just take your pick.
Of course, we'll have to start worrying about what to do when Google and co. start getting too comfy owning the government, but they did promise to not be evil! :)
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Netflix doesn't want me to get my own account
I've been actively trying to stop sharing with my family. I want my own account! But Netflix provides a terrible experience for doing that. There is currently no way to migrate my history and preferences to a new account. The profile transfer feature is currently unavailable in this country, so in order to get my own account I need to not only pay them, but also start over with years of history and preferences. Netflix seems to recognize that the data that it associates with me has value; they did after all famously run that $1M contest back in the day to improve recommendations. So it's not just that this data has value to them, but also it has value to me. I'm surprised they don't think I'd want to keep it around. Why not start with the low-lying fruit? let people move their darn profiles to a new account! I bet they'd get some switchers even without adding the "incentive" of a penalty for password sharing. It reminds me of the piracy "debate". For me, it's easier and more convenient to stay sharing an account, even though I would be willing to pay for a new one. They're giving me a negative reason to buy. Yet they're focusing on enforcement, assuming I'm just a mooch. But I want out! Just make it easy for me to switch!
Fight fire with fire.
I get the feeling Google should've turned around and used those 500M (which they'd already "put aside") and use them for pure lobbying.
Heck, we read story after story about all sorts of "taxes on innovation" levied against Google and other companies by all sorts of members of the old guard. Well, some of these tech companies happen to have a bunch of cash at hand, and they don't seem to be spending nearly as much of it lobbying as, say, the recording industry, which wouldn't be able to match them dollar for dollar.
Is it the "Do no evil" thing? Is it an inherent disgust for having to pay politicians to be able to make money as opposed to having the best product out there? I can certainly understand that disgust, since the mere idea would seem appalling to me (why should I have to do that? And how is it even moral?). But, hey, 500M is not chump change. And it accumulates.
I'd see it as the least of all evils. They could easily convince themselves that they'd be fighting a crusade that'll make everybody better off.
Pharma pressing on you? Spend 500M on politicians instead of just giving it away, see how that works. Recording industry wants to break the internet? 200M should fix that. Patent system is broken? Pay 12.5B for some patents with some production on the side? Hell no! A tenth of that will probably buy you either of the 2 political parties. Just take your pick.
Of course, we'll have to start worrying about what to do when Google and co. start getting too comfy owning the government, but they did promise to not be evil! :)