Netflix absolutely enforced this in the US last year. I was sharing an account with my sister and we started getting notices about choosing a “home base” for our devices so Netflix could register it on their side to enforce if anyone outside of that initial IP began leveraging it.
So what if you travel, can you not stream from a hotel since it’s a different IP address?
You can, as long as you check in that device at the “home base” with your other devices every 30 days. At least that’s what I remember from the fuzzy details.
We unsubscribed when it happened, only recently subbed again to watch some stuff, but I think we’ll pause again since we’re all caught up.
I don’t know about Netflix, but last time I tried, YouTube TV let you stream from not your “home” for like a week at a time
My solution to this would be:
- Buy two Raspberry Pis (3 or higher) or use two old laptops if you have them
- Set up Pi VPN server on the one at your house
- Connect the one at your sister’s house to it via ethernet to her router
- Turn that one into a wireless AP (https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/debian-ubuntu-linux-setting-wireless-access-point/)
- Connect your sister’s smart TV or whatever devices to it and as far as Netflix are concerned you’re both in the same house
My family got several of those notices. One time me and my sister were not able to watch anything using my mother’s account. We stopped using Netflix altogether but a few weeks later my wife opened the app and we were able to use it without any issues. I still see the option to pay for “sharing” or whatever it’s called but we don’t have it enabled