this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2023
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Plex is cracking down on pirated content. They can't do anything locally (yet) but they sent out a mass email about two weeks ago saying that anyone that hosts a Plex server in the cloud (they didn't specifically mention Hetzner, but that's who is largely being affected) will lose access on October 12th.
That's because people were creating their own 'streaming services' using pirated content and selling access to it using Hetzner servers, which is very bad for all parties involved because it brings a lot of negative attention when actual profits are being generated from distributing pirated material.
Yeah, but it sucks for people like me who just set everything up a few weeks ago and are using it privately. I've hosted a massive Plex server locally for about a decade, but finally decided to stop doing everything locally. I had it running for two weeks in the cloud before I got the email from Plex. I just setup Jellyfin yesterday and all of my users will have to migrate to that.
That sucks for you, but you gotta understand Plex there as well I think. They know that all their clients are pirates, but they can't just ignore something like that, lest risk catching unwanted attention.
People thought hosting copyrighted content on someone's cloud and making it available to others was a good idea? 🤦🤦♀️🤦♂️
This is why we can't have nice things.
It's specifically people doing this and selling access to the servers en masse, like these servers have a hundred or more users each. The don't care about the small fish that are doing this privately for no monetary gain.
Yeah, I guess it's often profit-driven. If you can get $5 per month from 100 people, you can probably clear hundreds of dollars per month. So that ten times, and this becomes quite a serious profit stream.
Yet.
I'm just as jaded and cynical as the next guy, but I think that this is a mischaracterization of that email. People were hosting Plex servers with thousands of users and terabytes of pirated content on Hetzner and selling access. I don't read them taking action as a signal for them blocking local libraries in the future.
They all do it just to get the lawyers off their backs. Plex is just a bigger target. Plex can't block anything locally so they take action against user distributing pirated content on a cloud service and are like "Here, we took action, can you leave us alone now?". It would practically be impossible for them to block the distribution of pirated content at the local level.
Plex fucked up when they created their Client-Server model because it allows traffic to run through their servers (the Plex Relay and their "phone home" model). This makes them legally responsible for "facilitating access to pirated content" even though they don't host the content. Jellyfin doesn't have this pitfall since you host everything yourself, they just provide the software.
You're the second person that says " Plex isn't cracking down on pirated content.... but they're banning people who are hosting servers with pirated content." If that's not " cracking down on pirated content" IDK what is....
That’s their entire userbase. Bold call haha
Yeah, people act like Plex and other media servers are used for legally obtained content only. Plex is just covering their asses and they can't block users hosting locally so this is a "here we did something, are you happy now?" to the copyright lawyers.
Plex's (almost) entire user base is pirates, it's the same with Kodi, Emby and Jellyfin. I don't know of anyone that has legally ripped all of their DVDs and Blu-rays themselves, it's just too much of a pain in the ass, and I know multiple people that have run servers for years.
Plex is just covering their own asses from getting sued for "enabling the distribution of pirated content". Kodi and Jellyfin aren't big targets since they aren't a business, they don't sell a product, Plex (and Emby) does. Kodi and Jellyfin can't get sued (or it doesn't make sense to sue them) because they have the disclaimer that says "we make this for streaming content you own, we don't host anything, we don't support the piracy plugins, do what you will with it, we're not responsible for your actions" but since Plex can route traffic through their servers (the Plex Relay) and the fact that they offer PlexPass puts them in hot water.
Instead of Plex blocking the specific users based on email, specific IP or something else specific to that account, they said "fuck anyone using Hetzner, regardless of whether or not you're violating our ToS."
I've paid for a lifetime PlexPass and have actually paid for it a few times over since it took years before I finally bought one. Yet, I get treated like I'm some mega-pirate making money off of them. They don't give a shit about their users, all they care about is money and not getting sued.
Sorry I don't buy it. It stinks of puppeting for rights holders. I moved to Jellyfin as soon as that story broke. I've been a Plex pass user for over 10 years (albeit lifetime single purchase) and the only thing I miss is in-TV subtitle search.
I've been running both Plex and Jellyfin for years and I've had more problems with Plex than I've had with Jellyfin. It's also easier to figure out what the issue is since it's open source, I actually fixed a bug and added documentation for the "Native streaming" in JellyfinForKodi since I was able to dig deep into it.
I've always found that Hardware (GPU) Encoding to be a pain to use, regardless of the platform. It also lessens the quality of the video compared to Software Encoding. Get yourself a stronger CPU and don't mess with HE. I have a AMD Threadripper 2970WX in my home server and it laughs at transcoding 4K with uncompressed audio and Dolby Vision/Atmos. I can do 4 4K simultaneous transcodes with room to spare.
People pay Plex for the ease of remote access. If you can read or watch a video, it's really not that difficult to setup remote access for Jellyfin (they have the process fully documented). There's a key thing here: if you setup the remote connection it removes any liability from the software creators (Jellyfin in this case). If you want to give them $120 or more because you can't be bothered to figure out how to setup remote access yourself, so be it, but you're also at the whim of the company.
You seem really sensitive to this.
Yes. Plex have access to my content, my usage history, my personal details, etc. Giving that sort of information away and trusting a for-profit company to do the right thing is naive at best. I feel happier now that the system is behind closed doors, even if I do miss out on a feature or two.
Not really. Are you mixing my response up with others? I voiced an opinion, that was all.
They also responded to me me saying "Plex has been cracking down on Netflix style streaming services for 5 years" but then tell you "Plex isn't cracking down on piracy, you're spreading misinformation!" 🤣
I've always hated the fact that Plex was sort of a black box, I've been using it for over a decade and always had random issues which we're unable to be troubleshot because there was no information available. One long standing bug is sometimes when you setup a server it won't connect to the Plex backend and doesn't register on their end, so even if you visit the local IP of your server, there are zero server settings available. No one knows why it happens or how to fix it, there has been a big report open for it for ages and even the devs/support team are like 🤷♂️ when you ask them for help, and this is after paying for PlexPass. Granted it doesn't happen frequently, but it's still annoying as hell. "Claiming" your server when its run remotely (especially in docker) can sometimes be a huge pain as well.
You sure are incredibly trusting and protective of Plex. For a closed source system, unless you work for Plex, you are spreading misinformation by denying opinions contrary to your own. I would think myself naive to continue to trust in a company showing themselves to be taking action in favour of copyright holders.
And you're incapable of having an informative discussion without resorting to insults. Blocked.
You know what, fuck this, you guys can all go with the narrative of 'plex is cracking down on pirated content and can see what you have on your server'. Have fun.
Good to know, hopefully this creates a drive to make alternatives a little more user friendly to set up
It's easy to setup remote access to Jellyfin... once you know what you're doing. I've been doing it for years, and just recently gave Caddy a try as my reverse proxy and it literally takes 3 lines of code to create a SSL secured reverse proxy (literally just Jellyfin.yourfqnd.com { reverse_proxy Jellyfin:8096}).
I've written a docker compose file for each of my categories of apps on my server: Plex, Jellyfin, Admin apps, and Pirating. The Caddy config file is simple so I just copy that to its app directory. My DNS and my CNAME records are already set.
So after a bit of work writing the aforementioned scripts I can have my entire setup on a new server in about 5 minutes and one command.
IDK if docker-compose works on Windows, but I'm happy to share it if you run Linux.
Haha I’ve been scrolling down this thread and read these wholesome helpful comments and look up and it’s been you each time!!
Cut that shit out!!
👏 well done you beautiful soul 👍
Hahaha happy to help! Apparently two people didn't like my comment above for some reason 🤷♂️
I've been doing this for over a decade and have a lot of experience in what to do and what not to do!
Gotta sell out to get more VC cash somehow /s