I feel that this act is unethical somehow, but I can't place exactly how. I would presume that the user is still allowed to perform a password reset, but I see this as a "soft" denial of service. I don't think any of the power users broke the Terms of Service and MoviePass didn't change these terms until later.
MoviePass was literally advertising a service it wasn't truly willing or able to sell at scale. I'm glad I stopped using them once I heard they were becoming bankrupt.
I mean, ToS aside, it's probably illegal. It's arguably wire fraud, and quite likely breach of contract.
MoviePass made false representations by internet "for obtaining money", and knowingly deprived paying customers of tangible property (i.e. movie tickets and/or monthly payments). Specifically targeting power users makes the financial motive pretty undeniable, and timing it to delay them while a popular movie sold out shows that tangible loss was the intent. Before 2010, it would probably have been honest services fraud to boot - as Scalia opined, everything was honest services fraud - but that's been narrowed to bribes and kickbacks. It wouldn't be a trivial conviction since the company wasn't outright robbing people (e.g. by disabling the accounts altogether) but "plausibly a felony" isn't where most of us like to do business.
More convincingly, it's the sort of thing that could invite class action lawsuits or demands for refunds. The ToS may not have covered this specific action, but fraudulent misrepresentation is still grounds to seek damages in a contract.
How is it hard to see how this is unethical? You are paying for a service, the company is deliberately making it hard/impossible for you to actually use that service.
This would be a very easy class action lawsuit if the company actually had money to pay for it.
I see now. Even though I’ve was a MoviePass subscriber in the past, I was so focused on just that paragraph that I forgot that MoviePass is something you pay for. Your reply reminded me that you are paying for the service, so thanks for that. Sorry for the trouble.
MoviePass was literally advertising a service it wasn't truly willing or able to sell at scale. I'm glad I stopped using them once I heard they were becoming bankrupt.