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.
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.
Which is really good, additional revenue streams are an excellent idea. Doing it like this? Less excellent. There's probably much better ways to monetize rather than upending the apple cart and having developers go 'huh, this isn't a great idea'.
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.