Plex Asks GitHub to Take Down 'Reshare' Repository Over Piracy Fears (torrentfreak.com) 60
Plex is a multi-functional streaming platform that allows users to watch, organize, and curate their favorite media entertainment. Sharing Plex libraries is also an option; one that comes with piracy concerns. In an effort to "avoid the growth of piracy," Plex asked GitHub to remove a repository that allows people to reshare libraries that were not originally theirs. TorrentFreak reports: The Swiss company, which is headquartered in the U.S., asked GitHub to remove a "Plex Reshare" repository, alleging that it may contribute to its piracy problem. "Plex Reshare" doesn't host any copyright-infringing material and, as far as we've seen, it doesn't reference any either. Its main purpose is to allow Plex users to make shared Plex directories browsable on the web, which allows people to "reshare" them without being the original owner. "The reason behind this project is to make available your PLEX shares to other friends unrelated to the person who owns the original library," Plex Reshare developer Peter explains.
While the repository doesn't host or link to copyright-infringing material, Plex argues that it can be used to 'grow' piracy. "We have found infringing material in your website which indeed is OTHER 'Plex Server'. The material that is claimed to be infringing is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled immediately and avoid the growth of piracy," the takedown notice reads. The first part of the sentence is somewhat confusing. Plex-reshare is not a Plex server but the company may use "OTHER Plex Server" as an internal classification category. In any case, Plex alleges that the repository can contribute to the growth of piracy on its platform.
Citing the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act, Plex urges GitHub to take immediate action, or else it may be held liable. It's not clear what this liability claim rests on, as there are no actual copyright infringements mentioned in the takedown notice. Despite the broad nature of this claim, GitHub has indeed taken the repository offline, replacing it with a DMCA takedown reference. This likely wasn't a straightforward decision as GitHub is known to put developers first with these types of issues. In this case, it took more than three weeks before GitHub took action, which is much longer than usual. This suggests that GitHub allowed the developer to respond and may have sought legal advice from in-house lawyers, to ensure that the rights of all parties are properly considered. The report notes that the Plex-reshare code is listed on Docker Hub as well, which means it may face a similar fate.
While the repository doesn't host or link to copyright-infringing material, Plex argues that it can be used to 'grow' piracy. "We have found infringing material in your website which indeed is OTHER 'Plex Server'. The material that is claimed to be infringing is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled immediately and avoid the growth of piracy," the takedown notice reads. The first part of the sentence is somewhat confusing. Plex-reshare is not a Plex server but the company may use "OTHER Plex Server" as an internal classification category. In any case, Plex alleges that the repository can contribute to the growth of piracy on its platform.
Citing the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act, Plex urges GitHub to take immediate action, or else it may be held liable. It's not clear what this liability claim rests on, as there are no actual copyright infringements mentioned in the takedown notice. Despite the broad nature of this claim, GitHub has indeed taken the repository offline, replacing it with a DMCA takedown reference. This likely wasn't a straightforward decision as GitHub is known to put developers first with these types of issues. In this case, it took more than three weeks before GitHub took action, which is much longer than usual. This suggests that GitHub allowed the developer to respond and may have sought legal advice from in-house lawyers, to ensure that the rights of all parties are properly considered. The report notes that the Plex-reshare code is listed on Docker Hub as well, which means it may face a similar fate.
many thanks plex (Score:5, Funny)
Re:many thanks plex (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd venture a guess that Plex is being a hardass about piracy (even though that's basically Plex's raison d'etre) because being in the Apple and Roku app stores is really the only thing it has going for it. Both of those app marketplaces have rather strict developer rules about that sort of thing.
On the other hand, any streaming device running Android can just run one of the fully open media players, such as Kodi and Jellyfin, which makes Plex kind of superfluous on that platform.
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Yes,
They have to at least give the impression of being against piracy, even though people are selling subscriptions to their terabytes of pirated content on their private servers. (I never get the idea of paying for that, but that's another story).
The problem is, this is a thin line.
And to make it worse, they are trying to get into the content game themselves (for a long time), they started experimenting with trailers and stuff, and I would be sad if they ever go the "Roku" way by defecating on everything o
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because being in the Apple and Roku app stores is really the only thing it has going for it.
Apple? Roku? What are those? My Samsung TV's app store and my mobile phone would really like to know. There's actually a real reason, it's not too far from what you guessed but it has nothing to do with the stores. Plex has an actual streaming service and has partnered with actual streaming services and need to appease *studios*, not tech companies.
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I never understood why anyone was using Plex or similar apps. Even back in the 2000s there were better, open source alternatives.
I see a lot of people still have their server transcode media as well, so obsess over transcoding performance of CPUs and GPUs. Aside from the loss of quality, it just seems so pointless when even the cheapest Android boxes can play H.265 at 4k60 these days.
Am I missing something? Are people just locked into the ecosystem?
Re:many thanks plex (Score:4, Insightful)
Plex has it's issues, but it's still the easiest and most accessible media server out there, it has clients for Android, FireTV, AppleTV, Roku, iOS, plus a bunch of "smart" tv platforms. For the people who are sharing out their media with their friends or accessing their server remotely, it's basically plug and play, and offers internet wide access to the server without having to deal with managing dynamic dns and such.
There are annoyances, and I'm basically done with them due to how they've been integrating their external services into things. Attempting to sneak episodes from their streaming service into your local media so they get the ad revenue. Or how they make accessing a local server still require sign-in / internet access by default.
Jellyfin just isn't there yet for many people (but getting better every day, and is my hope for the future). Emby was getting better but started going down the Plex path and locking features.
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Thanks. Personally I avoid anything like that if I can, just because of the potential lock in, or for them to make changes that annoy me like requiring an internet connection. So obviously AppleTV, iOS, FireTV and the like are of little interest to me, it's got to be Android with side-loading available.
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I never understood why anyone was using Plex or similar apps. Even back in the 2000s there were better, open source alternatives.
I see a lot of people still have their server transcode media as well, so obsess over transcoding performance of CPUs and GPUs. Aside from the loss of quality, it just seems so pointless when even the cheapest Android boxes can play H.265 at 4k60 these days.
Am I missing something? Are people just locked into the ecosystem?
Name two and explain why they're better.
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Kodi for one. Open source, loads of plug-ins, and you can either manage your library as a library with automatic metadata, or just files on a network share. It's extremely flexible in terms of options and integrations.
No need for a special server/backend, a basic network share or put the files on a USB stick will do.
I know there are others, but Kodi is great so I haven't tried them myself.
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I like Kodi, but it is a front end--not a server. It can't do much of what plex can--serve content to multiple diverse front ends. I want the additional features that a "special server/backend" can provide like user-specific access controls, transcoding, automatic downloads of the 'next 3 episodes' to my mobile device, etc..
As a front end, Kodi falls in-between 'app' and -multi-source content managers like Roku; and it comes up short in the 'availability' and 'consistancy' categories: Can I buy a Kodi box l
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Kodi user here.
I do not use Kodi's library or metadata features; it's just not important to me.
My collect sits on some in-house network shares (on ZFS-based storage servers) that my Kodi machines (all PC-based) access over the in-house network.
The video collection includes a broad range of video resolutions & codecs, but best of all NO TRANSCODING REQUIRED !
The attached display on each Kodi machine can handle up to 4k video at 60fps.
These Kodi machines can play any codec & video resolution (up to 4k
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Because walled gardens.
No "Smart TV" will let you run your own open-source player on their platform, but most of them come with a Plex client.
There's DLNA which most smart (and "not so smart") TVs support, but it's just a terrible user experience.
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That's not true, at least not in Europe. For example, Sony TVs run Android and allow side-loading your own apps. That said, Kodi is on the Play Store so you don't even need to side-load it, just install it as normal.
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Thanks, might be an option for a cheap device. My current go to for that is Xiaomi.
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I used to use Plex until they made an internet connection mandatory, even for your own library. As soon as you have an internet outage (local network still works), then you are forced to go back to something less sophisticated like SMB and VLC.
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I've been using Kodi since the original Xbox Media Centre days. I like it because it's reliable and hassle free.
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Maybe your Xbox was broken. I really had no issues with it at all back then, it was stable and reliable. Those original machines were known to get a bit flakey.
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Kind of a self-limiting problem (Score:2)
Broadband connections in the USA are largely asymmetrical, so it's unlikely home Plex servers could be "reshared" much before bandwidth constraints did their thing.
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Broadband connections in the USA are largely asymmetrical, so it's unlikely home Plex servers could be "reshared" much before bandwidth constraints did their thing.
This is finally changing, though. My Comcast cable subscription was 600 down / 24 up for a long time, then it went to 800 down / 24 up... but several months ago they bumped the upload to 100 up (but only with specific DOCSIS 3.1 modems, which was annoying since my old 3.0 modem could've handled that speed w/o issue). That's still asymmetric, but 100 up is plenty for anything I might want to do.
Re: Kind of a self-limiting problem (Score:2)
My Comcast went from 1200 / 35 to 1200 / 200 a few months ago. When my contract expired, they raised the price 40%. I have had no luck getting a reasonable new contract unlike any time in the last 10 years.
I'm getting Sail internet next week. It will only he 200/200 to start with, but is a fraction of the Comcast price. $550 vs $1320. And their very competent tech told me it will be up to 500/500 later thus year. Spoke with him for an hour and it was a nice very technical conversation. Try that with Concas
Re: Kind of a self-limiting problem (Score:2)
Re: Kind of a self-limiting problem (Score:2)
I would have switched a long time ago if fiber came to my neighborhood. Been on AT&T's waiting list for 13 years. My hopes are not high.
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Well, Plex also adjusts the bitrate as needed so it can accomodate the users available bandwidth. If a server gets hammered the quality goes down so it can still serve the content to people.
Plex is funny! (Score:1)
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that's what's so weird about this they're going after them because it could potentially be used for piracy, and that's something I've never considered, but it's actually a good way to save money, to be honest.
They didn’t consider it either, there are any number of sites to get pirated content. However, plex is a legal way to save money and share with family and friends both of which corporations are trying to get rid of.
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However, plex is a legal way to save money and share with family and friends both of which corporations are trying to get rid of.
That's pretty much the vibe I’m getting.
“Want to pay money to conveniently rewatch 30-year-old movie?”
“No, I have 30-year-old movie on VHS...”
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like it's just a media player
I assume the last time you used Plex was in the early 2000s? You may have since missed that it is complete streaming service, able to not only source data from a server on your local network, but also from their own official stream, while also combining all your other streaming subscriptions into a single searchable media database.
Calling it "just a media player" is like saying a computer's OS is just a graphics card driver. If you were after "just a media player" you sure as hell wouldn't be picking Plex.
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For reference my car has this fancy radio that does all this app stuff, but I only ev
Plex is Great! (Score:2)
Glad I found out about this. But my biggest issue, is that ppl that have the download option on, when they download it doesn't show up in stats. I've also found that the downloaded version is exactually the same as the copy that sits on my server. so if they view one of ripped blueray, it transcodes it to 1080p@ max 8mbit using maybe 2 or 3 gb of outbound. If they download it, they get the whole 30-60gb file, consuming quite a bit of outbound bandwidth.
Something Plex should think about...
Hey lets trump consumers rights (Score:2)
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If I remember rightly, when DVDs were a thing, the Australian government allowed region unlocking of DVD players, mainly because content holders weren’t making their content available in the country. Maybe there is a similar attitude in Finland, for equivalent reasons?
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I do know that what they describe is not the norm for the EU. The norm for the EU is an even stricter set of EU directives than the DMCA.
stupid extra-territorial laws are stupid (Score:2)
considering the dumb DMCA doesn't apply in the EU... I cloned a copy for myself and encourage my brethren humans to do the same.
let the powers that be at plex know that the streisand effect is alive and kicking
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False claim (Score:3)
Plex denies it's origin... (Score:2)
...as it would not exist if not for that which it denies.
UPDATE: GitHUb complied... "Repository unavailable due to DMCA takedown."
Pot/Kettle/The Sword (Score:2)
Well then we're moments from Plex being taken down on the same premise.
What a bunch of schmucks.
Say hello to the clones? (Score:2)
Now that there is awareness that such technology exists, how long before we see clones or even forks elsewhere? There is likely going to be a Streisand effect?
The internet also helps grow piracy. (Score:3)
Better shut that down too huh?
An analogy (Score:1)
Do you ask Lowes to stop selling hammers because burglars use them to break into homes? No.
Fuck Plex (Score:3)
Github and other platforms need to stomp out these shitty pearl-clutching copyright sycophants as hard as possible. Fuck off, Plex. Your shitty proprietary software has already been bested by open alternatives. You have no standing to remove this, and the law you quote doesn't apply here.
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I don't disagree with most of what you say here. What I find interesting is that github took it down, where they are known to be pretty lenient with what they keep up, or revert takedowns pretty liberally.