Password Sharing

I don't think there's a module that does exactly that, but it wouldn't be too hard to custom code the unique page to set a cookie (using jquery's cookie plugin).

But I wonder if the overall experience would be frustrating to users, by making them dig up the e-mail whenever they log on from a different computer.

So, maybe there's a better way?

One thing you could do is use the Password Expire module to make the system set a new password every week for each user (you'd have to adapt the module a wee bit).

Sure, folks could then share the password on a weekly basis, but it'd probably be easier for them to just go on and subscribe themselves.

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Another idea:
Now, what would be interesting is if you could adapt the Password Expire module to reset the password after X logins. Because folks that use only one or two machines aren't logging in and out that much, and those that share the password will be logging in and out a lot more.

Combine that concept with auto expiration of user session each day, and you can pretty easily find password sharers in those that login more than twice a day.

I kinda rambled, but hopefully it's given you some ideas.

One-time login links would work here. Each link is tied to a specific account, is valid for only 24 hours and can only be used once. The Login one time module can programmatically create them and the One-time login links module can generate them manually, but you'd also need something like User Protect to prevent people from manually changing their accounts passwords.

In general, I agree that this is an edge case that may not be worth worrying about. It's difficult to say without knowing more about the spec of the site, though, and it's an interesting problem to solve. The combination of modules listed above would essentially turn a Drupal site into a no-password system and still be generally usable.

Never tried something exactly like this, but it sounds like if you implemented this for all users you'd be asking for support hell.

Christefano seems to have some great suggestions, but just curious if you've considering giving most users normal access until their account logs suspicious activity (multiple sign ons at the same time, logging in from some number of different IPs within 24 hours, etc). Then, you could put up a warning that says, "It appears your account may have been compromised, we've changed your login settings," and implement the single-sign on method. It'd probably be enough of a deterrent that users would voluntarily give up "sharing" their subscriptions.

Otherwise, I think so many users would be turned off by the usability problems you're just shooting the business case in the foot.

Interesting problems.

Michael Morisy
Web/Development Committee, SpareChangeNews.net (internally being redesigned)
Twitter: @morisy

The http://drupal.org/project/single_login module provides a way to limit users to a single login. It's not available for 6.x yet, but upgrading shouldn't be hard.

Regarding how to charge people, I suggest using the private module, ubercart, and sell roles via ubercart subscriptions. I haven't done the latter myself, but know that lots of folks have.

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