Account-sharing programme: beyond piracy streaming platforms in Indonesia

Abstract

ABSTRACT Examining user practices at the centre of debates on video content consumption amidst the popularity of streaming platforms in Indonesia, this paper uses de Certeau’s work (1984) to understand the ways in which users as the weak ‘make use of the strong’ to manipulate and enjoy audiovisual content in everyday life. Based on qualitative empirical virtual observation of Shopee, this study explores how the presence of online shopping platforms contributes to the proliferation of account-sharing programmes as a method for accessing audiovisual content on streaming platforms. Such practices are difficult to define as acts of piracy given that no copyright infringement of protected content or distribution of audiovisual content outside the streaming platforms has occurred. Further, these practices constitute a new form of ‘shadow economy’ , by allowing certain users to rent their streaming platform accounts and by enabling many users to enjoy streaming platforms legally but by contravening the streaming services’ ToS. Such account-sharing programmes differ from piracy practices through peer-to-peer (P2P) or audiovisual streaming websites which allow unauthorized circulation of video content. This paper offers greater insight into the distribution of audiovisual content through streaming platforms and contributes to the discussion of new form of piracy.