Amazon Prime is changing the way they will allow members to share benefits on a single account, according to PC World.

The new policy requires members to create an account called “Amazon Households” to be able to share the shipping benefits of the account holder.  The new policy allows only two adults to share an account, with both adults being able to share the same payment methods across the account.

Under the old policy, the account holder was allowed to share the shipping benefits with up to four adults.  All they need to supply was their birthday, e-mail address and relationship to the account holder to take advantage of the Prime shipping benefits.  Prime Instant Video and other benefits were not sharable.

With a Households account, however, you may share with the other adult the benefits of Streaming Video (one stream at a time), the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library, and the benefits of an Amazon Mom’s subscription.  The account also allows parents to share books and other content with up to four children through their Family Library.

Just over a year ago, Amazon raised the price of Prime membership from $79 to $99, saying the rise in fuel costs and transportation warranted the increase.

Amazon also seems to be pushing their corporate customers towards a business account that doesn’t include video streaming, but allows free shipping for all orders over $49.  Some see this as a crackdown on sharing benefits between employees of small businesses.

It is certain that Amazon never intended for its service to be shared outside of the original household, but the company’s policy did not make it very hard to do so.

So unless you are willing to share your credit card and payment info, it appears your friends will need to sign up for their own membership in order to receive the benefits of an Amazon Prime subscription.