Limit Concurrent Streams per File

[chrisbrendel]

I work IT for a private school and we are discussing the viability of using PLEX for in-house streaming of physical media ripped and made available to teachers to stream into classrooms in lieu of DVD players and physical media (which is often scratched after a few years).

We obviously want to keep things above board, and the biggest issue we need to resolve is limiting the number of concurrent streams per file in relation to the number of physical copies owned to remain in compliance with copyright.

We have discussed options like Tautulli but from what we have researched nothing has a killstream function if a concurrent stream threshold is reached.

I’m interested if anyone has suggestions for automating this process.

I think this option could further legitimize PLEX and open up a whole new niche with more and more schools entering the digital age.

We will be piloting this for our film teachers as we don’t need to worry about concurrent streams of the same file.

Montclair Kimberley Academy in New Jersey has been using Plex for several years at their three campuses. However, they do not have an easy solution in regards to copyright enforcement. They use Tautulli to simply monitor streams.

For those on r/PleX, I posted this about a year ago with no true solution, so you’re not crazy if you think you’ve seen this posted before.

[Volts]

There have been a few similar feature requests and discussions.

I’m not aware of a “packaged” solution either.

[Feature Request] Limit simultaneous views

Hi, We recently set up a Plex server to host the school’s DVD-library on the local network and are testing this for possible roll-out in the entire county. It’s working great so far, except for a couple of issues. We aren’t completely sure of the legality of allowing multiple users to view the same video simultaneously, even if it is only on our local network, and would be very interested in a feature that sets a limit on the number of simultaneous views allowed on all content or on a specific…

Limit Simultaneous Streams Per File

Back in the days of buying DVDs there was always a legal subculture of lending movies to friends. I think it would be hard for even the MPAA to argue that loaning a DVD to a friend is illegal. Plex allows us to loan movies to friends via the internet, but if I only ever bought one copy of a movie, it is reasonable to think that I could only lend out one copy at a time. I think Plex should have a feature for those of us who want to abide by the rules-of-the-overlords to only allow a certain nu…

Is there a way to limit simultaneous playback?

I work at a high school and am currently building our Plex Media Server to digitize all of our audio and video media. We know we are within copyright law and fair use as long as we can ensure we are limiting the number of simultaneous playback instances to the number of physical copies we own. (1 physical copy of To Kill a Mockingbird = 1 digital copy being streamed, 2 = 2 streams at a time, etc.) Does anyone know how, or if, this is possible? We’ve been told that it is, but I can’t find the…

Limiting simultaneous streams

Any answer on this yet? I work at a HS and am building a Plex Media Server for our digital media. I want to make sure we don’t violate copyright laws and so I want to ensure we limit access to only the number of copies we own (or even just one at a time). Any updates would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Blacktwin]

@chrisbrendel

For those on r/PleX, I posted this about a year ago with no true solution, so you’re not crazy if you think you’ve seen this posted before.

Can you link to the post? I probably responded then

@chrisbrendel

We have discussed options like Tautulli but from what we have researched nothing has a killstream function if a concurrent stream threshold is reached.

Tautulli would just be the tool to trigger the script to accomplish your goal. This script, with the example arguments, would limit concurrent streams by users not by file but it provides an example that what you’re asking can be done.

So how are you setting up the users per teacher/classroom/campus? How are you sharing, how many files will be available? How you setup your users and your libraries may make what you’re trying to do easier. Or a better way to look at it would be more complexity with users, libraries, and files then less complexity of the script or standard user, library, and file structure and more complexity in the script.

[Blacktwin]

I’m more than willing to help but I would need some additional information. PM me here or here are couple other ways to get in contact with me.

You could build out a listing of ratingKeys with allowed amounts and have that in the script or in a separate config type file. Or add labels to each item with the allowed amount. The script would pull in all streams and check against the ratingKeys allowance or labels allowance. Once the threshold is met the offending stream could be killed with a message stating the allowed amount, who else is watching, how far their progress is, who will finish first, an ETA of when the next stream can start, notify any or all users via email, slack, discord, etc, etc. Lots of possiblities.