Netflix (NFLX +0.02%) has been friendly to outside developers for many years. The company provided easy-to-use data access tools, giving rise to a cottage industry. Netflix even ran a tool-building contest with a million-dollar prize, until privacy hawks shut down that idea. And many of the company's in-house tools have been exported as open-source projects.
These initiatives have built a strong technology base, and a thriving ecosystem around the core operation. In many ways, that's exactly how Facebook (FB +0.58%) killed MySpace and rose to social media stardom. Why not follow that template, especially since Netflix CEO Reed Hastings serves on Facebook's board of directors?
But Netflix is backing down from that developer-friendly policy these days. In this video, Fool contributor and longtime Netflix shareholder Anders Bylund explains why this move makes him very nervous.
