It’s one of those harmless barely-even-a-crimes, like jaywalking or sneaking into an R-rated movie, and we’re all guilty of it. But the big streaming players and the remaining vestiges of cable TV are joining forces to put the kibosh on password-sharing.

A new item from Gizmodo delves into the finer points of a recent press release coming from Disney+ and Charter Communications, the most alarming of which concerns a plan to put an end to the halcyon days of mooching off of our parents’ accounts. This is the demise of MoviePass all over again — no good thing can last.

The release places an emphasis on “piracy mitigation,” with a specific intention to reduce “unauthorized access and password sharing.” On the one hand, we may soon be paying a lot more fees to the streaming overlords, but on the other, all this talk of unauthorized access makes freeloaders sound like computer hackers.

The technology by which this could be made possible has yet to be revealed, though Gizmodo’s item does cite a recent article speculating that tracking and cross-referencing user IP addresses could be an effect method of monitoring activity. Big Brother’s coming, and he wants twelve quid or so per month.

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