I'm constantly amazed at the entitlement attitude so many have when it comes to APIs and other people's data. Netflix wishes to change the rules on their API so that it fits in with some broader strategy no one knows about, so what? They wish to restrict the flow of data that they collect for their own uses, so what? They no longer wish to allow third-parties to monetize data accessed from a public API, so what? Regardless of what the article states, it is their data and they can do with it as they please. A person's viewing history on Netflix is not that person's data, it is Netflix's data as they are the people who spent the money to collect it. No amount of whining or complaining will change that.<p>I can understand people thinking this might be a bad idea for them and I agree that it's possibly a PR mistake. But there is a difference between complaining about access and demanding access to a company's data.
These look like great changes. An alternate interpretation:<p>1. Third parties can't do nefarious things such as share my data with Facebook or tell my insurance company should I have watched some "surviving cancer" documentary in the past. They're enforcing laws which protect the privacy of my viewing history.<p>2. Someone can't gouge consumers by layering on additional fees to access what you've already paid for. eg: "Want to watch Netflix on your mobile device? That'll be $5/movie, please, and will show up on your next AT&T statement."<p>3. An application presenting itself as being a Netflix app can't pull the rug out from under you and make it easy to accidentally click on an iTunes version of the movie, get charged $4.99, and the third party gets an affiliate commission.<p>4. Third parties can no longer in bad faith scrape the Netflix database and use it for non-Netflix purposes. Do they really need to enforce common sense and decency here? There are many other sources for movie data if sites need that info.
Given how many companies are now rushing to get API's ready, opening them up at hackathons and getting developers motivated this seems like a really big own goal.<p>Consumers just like nice ways to use the services they're on, developers like nice ways to integrated services into their projects. Companies like revenues from people discovering their service outside of their normal channels. So, without knowing their genuine reasons for changing the API access it seems like Netflix basically have made a really stupid decision.
Netflix is in a battle with the VPPA, which covers video rental history (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Privacy_Protection_Act" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Privacy_Protection_Act</a>). This smells like some side-effect of a compromise they've been able to achieve in congress. Netflix's "broader objectives" are unattainable without changing some of the laws in the US, so they may be between a rock and a hard place here.
Updated:<p>Update: We’ve received word that the new API Terms of Use aren’t as sinister as on first glance. From VentureBeat:<p>We are not prohibiting sites from showing competing services, however we do not want anyone to use Netflix content such as titles and descriptions to advertise a competing service.<p>We’re not prohibiting developers from monetizing their applications by selling them directly to consumers. We will not, however, permit resale of our information in a business-to-business fashion.
From Nils in the comments there:<p><i>All developers should stop integrating netflix in their services and concentrate on the competition. They have nothing to lose as they are not allowed to make money using netflix anyways.</i><p>Can anyone see this going any other way? There will be no 3rd party apps supporting Netflix anymore.
Don't forget Amazon does the same for physical goods purchases (I don't know about their streaming service). Your purchase history is not available via their API. Product reviews are also no longer available via their API.<p>They don't mind listing their products alongside other retailers. Otherwise many shopping comparison engines would go bust. They probably allow it, not from the goodness of their hearts, but only because it drives sales seeing that they usually come out on top in price comparisons.<p>Netflix probably doesn't make much money off people coming to them via comparison apps (because they are already signed up anyway).<p>Building your entire business on top of one or two powerful companies' data and APIs will always be extremely risky. So, it's best left for hobby apps.
My take on this is simple: many competitors (Hulu, Amazon, Verizon, Comcast, etc.) are likely using the API or screen scraping services like Instantwatcher to gain critical competitive data about Netflix's catalog size and composition, deal term length, content popularity, etc. With the former dataset, you could basically build a list of average contract term length, suppliers, genres, popularity, etc. What leads me to believe this is the case is they first killed expiration date - obscuring when titles expire makes it difficult for competitors to pick of your best stuff. The recent changes probably came after Netflix took a closer look at how the API was being utilized.
Your blog post is broken, the link to the netflix post is set as the title of the href.<p>For anyone that wants to read it: <a href="http://developer.netflix.com/blog/read/Upcoming_Changes_to_the_Netflix_API_Program" rel="nofollow">http://developer.netflix.com/blog/read/Upcoming_Changes_to_t...</a>
Regardless of your opinion on Netflix's decision, announcing any negative news on a Friday afternoon (though I'm not surprised they did so) is bad form.
This worries me as a customer. As a consumer, having access to other interfaces, even if I'm not using them, seems like better value than however Netflix thinks they can monetize their customers' viewing data. If they do find some other income stream, maybe they can use it to keep pricing flat or buy more content. But after the Qwickster debacle, I'm not too confident in their ability to do this. Discouraging other enterprises from building businesses around them isn't a good signal. If Netflix drives itself out of business, I hope someone else (Amazon perhaps) will pick up the lead. I really have no interest in getting a cable subscription.
I disagree with the author's assertion that the following point means you can't sell an app that uses the Netflix API:<p>"charge, directly or indirectly, any fee (including any unique, specific, or premium charges) for access to the Content or your integration of the APIs in your Application,"<p>It seems pretty clear to me that this point says that you can't add additional fees to include the Netflix API data in your app, or charge an additional fee to enable such a feature. Nowhere does it say that you can't charge for an app that includes the API.<p>However, that no enterprise-app statement is quite odd. I wonder what the specific driver was for that addition? There was likely some straw that broke the camel's back there, and it would be entertaining at the least (IMO) to learn what it was.
Unrelated directly to the article's content, but I found your type extremely difficult to read and reworked it in browser so I could read it more easily. Here's how it looks and the modifications I made - hope this helps!<p>Screenshot: <a href="http://cl.ly/HTyu" rel="nofollow">http://cl.ly/HTyu</a><p>p { font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.7em; color: #555; }
.hentry header { magin-bottom: 1.5em; }
Netflix's problems with user history may be relevant here:<p><a href="http://www.reelseo.com/netflix-privacy-problems/" rel="nofollow">http://www.reelseo.com/netflix-privacy-problems/</a>
It seems quite clear to me that we are in dire need of a redefinition of 'my data' and who owns it. IMO, if my brain thought it up and you aren't paying me -- it's mine.
OT, but I wondered if anyone with the new MacBook Air (either i5 or the i7) has tried Netflix to see if it still sets the fans spinning loudly, or if the processor is able to handle it like the MBP can?