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I actually liked the mindset you presented - "sharing passwords is allowed in practice". In other threads on HN in the past, I've seen people complain about why

I actually liked the mindset you presented - "sharing passwords is allowed in practice". In other threads on HN in the past, I've seen people complain about why we are still using passwords and the like; but as I was reading your comment, it made me think that we lost sight of the purpose of passwords along the way. Obviously, safeguards for personal things is important, but the other way you see passwords used (at least in fiction) is for groups - secret door knock, "What's the password?" said by some bouncer through an eye slit in a door [1]. In this perspective, password sharing is a norm. It can be seen as a means to signifying your membership in a group... that shares Netflix. [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU5hCMAH-o4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU5hCMAH-o4

kalleboo 9y ago
Richard Stallman is also a proponent of sharing passwords https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2002/09/msg01810.html https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2002/09/msg01810.html Why GNU `su' does not support the `wheel' group =============================================== (This section is by Richard Stallman.) Sometimes a few of the users try to hold total power over all the rest. For example, in 1984, a few users at the MIT AI lab decided to seize power by changing the operator password on the Twenex system and keeping it secret from everyone else. (I was able to thwart this coup and give power back to the users by patching the kernel, but I wouldn't know how to do that in Unix.) However, occasionally the rulers do tell someone. Under the usual `su' mechanism, once someone learns the root password who sympathizes with the ordinary users, he or she can tell the rest. The "wheel group" feature would make this impossible, and thus cement the power of the rulers. I'm on the side of the masses, not that of the rulers. If you are used to supporting the bosses and sysadmins in whatever they do, you might find this idea strange at first.

kalleboo 9y ago

Richard Stallman is also a proponent of sharing passwords https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2002/09/msg01810.html https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2002/09/msg01810.html Why GNU `su' does not support the `wheel' group =============================================== (This section is by Richard Stallman.) Sometimes a few of the users try to hold total power over all the rest. For example, in 1984, a few users at the MIT AI lab decided to seize power by changing the operator password on the Twenex system and keeping it secret from everyone else. (I was able to thwart this coup and give power back to the users by patching the kernel, but I wouldn't know how to do that in Unix.) However, occasionally the rulers do tell someone. Under the usual `su' mechanism, once someone learns the root password who sympathizes with the ordinary users, he or she can tell the rest. The "wheel group" feature would make this impossible, and thus cement the power of the rulers. I'm on the side of the masses, not that of the rulers. If you are used to supporting the bosses and sysadmins in whatever they do, you might find this idea strange at first.