DStv password sharing in South Africa

South African subscribers can share their legitimate DStv login credentials with other users without concerns about contravening any laws.

The practice is even permitted explicitly under the service’s terms and conditions — albeit with some important exceptions.

MultiChoice has intensified its crackdown on pirate streaming services in the past few months, leading to several raids and arrests.

In its latest success, law enforcement officers working with MultiChoice’s Irdeto anti-piracy team raided an outlet allegedly involved in the “illegal distribution of login credentials that allegedly allowed unauthorised access to premium content”.

Officers arrested an individual involved with the operation and charged them with offences under the Copyright Act and Cyber Crime Act of 2020.

MultiChoice did not mention that the login credentials were not for its own service.

That could have created the impression that it was pursuing individuals for sharing legitimate DStv login credentials.

When MyBroadband asked the company about this, MultiChoice clarified that the logins were not for its own services but for a pirate streaming service illegally serving DStv content.

“The login details we mentioned are the ones given by the pirate operator to their customers, letting them access the pirate app and watch infringing content unlawfully,” MultiChoice said.

“To clarify, we were not talking about the login details of MultiChoice customers.”

MultiChoice did not name the service, and several popular pirate IPTV streamers provide unauthorised access to DStv’s live channels.

While distributing credentials for one of these pirate streaming services is illegal, it is not illegal to share your legitimate DStv username and password with someone else.

However, it may be against the DStv terms of service.

Irdeto’s anti-piracy director, Frikkie Jonker, previously explained to MyBroadband that the Cybercrimes Act said that no person might unlawfully acquire, possess, or use passwords or access codes that do not belong to them.

However, if a subscriber willingly shares their login, it is not “unlawfully” obtained.

DStv’s terms and conditions for login sharing

In fact, DStv explicitly allows its users to share their login credentials with others.

The broadcaster’s terms and conditions specifically state the following on who may access its services:

You may only use the DStv App and/or Website to view content if you comply with these DStv Terms and Conditions and:

1. you are a DStv Customer with a valid DStv Login; or
2. you are allowed by a DStv Customer to access or use the DStv App and/or Website.

The latter would apply specifically to cases where a customer has willingly shared their password with a friend or family member.

The only instance in which sharing login details would be a violation of DStv’s terms of service is if the user received or charged money, favour, or other consideration for allowing access to their subscription.

DStv considers this a “Prohibited” act under its terms and conditions but it is not a crime.

That means that if DStv discovers a user has done this, it could suspend that customer’s account.

However, if a user were to reproduce, modify, copy, transfer, broadcast, or stream their feed to other users, it will be in violation of intellectual property rights and is a criminal offence.

How streamers curb password sharing

Other streaming services have terms of service that specifically prohibit sharing login information with people outside the main account holder’s household.

Violating that rule is generally not a criminal offence, although that may depend on the country in which the user accesses the services.

Streaming services also rather use technical mechanisms to curb password sharing instead of kicking off or outright banning customers.

That includes limiting the number of concurrent streams and using geolocation and IP tracking to determine whether a single subscription was frequently used in multiple locations.

All this being considered, DStv subscribers should be aware that the company imposes strict streaming limits on its packages.

On its streaming-only services, it offers one stream for a big-screen device like a TV or computer, and app-based mobile stream

Subscribers can add on extra mobile streams for an additional monthly fee that varies based on their package.

DStv satellite users can enjoy numerous viewing “environments” at the same time with multiple decoders — also at an additional monthly fee.

These packages come bundled with an online streaming option, and additional mobile streams can also bolted on for an extra fee.

Given these limits, DStv customers should perhaps not be too keen to share their logins to ensure they don’t have to fight a family member or friend to catch the next major rugby or soccer march.