Hetzner audit process for legitimate users?

[mxm1234]

Hey guys,

I definitely didn’t want to start any wars here, but are there any talks about allowing users to apply to get unbanned from Hetzner ranges

I’ve been a Plex user for a long time and I can 100% prove that I know every user that I share with.

[JohnAlex]

Not Allowed to use Hetzner

Did anybody else receive notices about Plex shutting down access to servers hosted with Hetzner? Is anyone else pissed off about that?

[mxm1234]

Thanks I’m aware of this thread. I assume that means that Plex doesn’t care?

[BigWheel]

@mxm1234

but are there any talks about allowing users to apply to get unbanned from Hetzner ranges

I’m sorry there is not

[mxm1234]

Can you comment on whether this was specific to EU?

If I go through the trouble if migrating to OVH or somewhere else, will Plex eventually act on these too?

[BigWheel]

@mxm1234

Can you comment on whether this was specific to EU?

Only that one hosting provider that is affected currently. That provider is based in the EU but it affects anywhere they provide services.

@mxm1234

will Plex eventually act on these too?

If some other hosting provider is found to have as many folks violating our terms of service on it then we may but I cannot say if or when that may happen.

[Surferride]

This is very confusing. If I understand correctly you banned the whole Hetzner provider from being able to be used with Plex?
Why would you do that with all IP´s of the provider if a lot of users are using these providers servers to avoid having to buy a local NAS, UPS, etc.?
Or are you banning only some people who sell access to their libraries? Can you please share more about this topic to understand more clearly if hiring a Storagebox is possible or not?
thanks!

[mxm1234]

Typical non-answer. This was a drastic overreaction. Anyone actually violating your TOS probably has enough infrastructure to not see any downtime

Everyone else used a VPN and was back online in a day or so. What did you actually accomplish?

You need to allow people to appeal. I think all this showed me is that Plex can disappear at any moment, leaving users with nothing. I’ll be looking for a local-only alternative.

You guys really need to do better. You accomplished nothing for yourself other than punishing people because of a few bad apples.

If you want to suspend violators, great. We all support you. This isn’t how you do it. You still have an opportunity to reverse course

[JohnAlex]

@mxm1234

I assume that means that Plex doesn’t care?

Not sure what you mean.

Assume they did it for a number of reasons. One or more may not apply

1. Required to do it by third parties for potential copyright issues
2. Required to do it for financial reasons
3. Just because
4. Launching their own cloud service, again

I posted a link to the other thread as it has more information and to prevent another thread popping up diluting the focus.

[banjopotato]

I don’t believe they’ve thought this through and I’m guessing that’s because they did it in the face of a significant legal threat. I also suspect that the opacity of how they’re implementing this results from their own lack of certitude about whether what they’re doing in response to that threat is itself legal. Why, for example, do they never mention that Hetzner is the hosting provider involved?

This is all speculation on my part, but something doesn’t add up.

In addition to the fact that the resellers will have workarounds and so won’t be affected at all, there’s the fact that nobody other than those who got the email will know anything about this. New Plex customers, for example, will have no clue why their fresh install on Hetzner isn’t working. And why is there no whitelist of other providers? Is everyone just supposed to guess which providers will be acceptable and simply cross their fingers that the host they just moved to (perhaps at some cost in not only money but also time) isn’t the next one that Plex decides to block?

[Krazeh]

@banjopotato

And why is there no whitelist of other providers?

Because Plex don’t officially support cloud hosting. Why would they provide a list of providers they don’t support?

And yes, everyone who continues to use cloud hosting does just have to cross their fingers and hope their provider doesn’t get banned in the future.

[banjopotato]

That’s false. Show me anywhere that it says they don’t support cloud hosting.

[Krazeh]

@chrisc

We don’t really have anything else specific to say that wasn’t covered in the email sent to affected users. If an affected user wishes to continue using their Plex Media Server without issue, they should move it to be hosted from home. (Or at least a different hosting provider. But our personal media server was always designed and intended for users to host themselves at home for personal user, not in a shared hosting environment. Doing the latter could have unexpected consequences if other people also using the same hosting provider choose to take actions that violate a Terms of Service agreement, which is one reason it’s not something we recommend.)

That’s a quote from a Plex employee. Does it sound to you like they officially support cloud hosting?

But, more importantly, there isn’t anywhere that says that they do officially support cloud hosting. That’s how we know they don’t. I can’t show you something that doesn’t exist.

Just because you can install it on a cloud hosting provider doesn’t mean it’s officially supported.