Some of us are being perfectly polite, but are still being caught in the block of an entire hosting provider. It’s easy to see why people are so angry, and it’s infuriating that you can’t.
If you cared, you would provide a way for users who are not sharing illegal content to not lose access to their personal servers.
Demonstrate that you care.
I am not an employee, nor am I privy to the details or reasons for their actions.
However, if you stop for a second and consider, that maybe they are just as (or even more so) frustrated and infuriated as everyone who was doing nothing wrong, that they had to make the decision to block an entire hosting provider and that equally affects any non-abusing customers.
Do you really think they wanted to put themselves in this position causing collateral damage? Do you think it was a decision made lightly?
Yes it sucks, yes it may seem heavy handed, no we don’t have any of the details, nor are we likely to.
Some will give them the benefit of the doubt, others perhaps not.
We can find the way out if they’re not blocking the whole IDC worldwide.
Unfortunately, this is just one in a long line of consumer-hostile decisions that Plex has made.
Do you really think they wanted to put themselves in this position causing collateral damage?
Yes. I cynically think that Plex wants to shed itself of its personal server business, and transition to a Netflix-style streaming service. Therefore, it will take any excuse to do so, avoiding doing any work on fixing problems for its paying customers.
Is this a cynical view? Yes. But it also fits the pattern. And since Plex have chosen silence, I take this as corroboration.
I paid up for a lifetime Plex Pass, and I’ve never regretted it more.
Wanted to leave my two cents here as someone who recently migrated from Plex Media Server to Jellyfin, precisely because I was not happy with the direction that Plex Inc. was going. I am a Lifetime Plex Pass holder, too.
I hope everyone is paying very close attention to the message that Plex is communicating here because it is contrary to their previous stance regarding hosting Plex Media Server in the ‘cloud’.
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
Great. Plex Inc. is now on record stating that the intended use of Plex Media Server is to be hosted at home. The writing is on the wall for anyone else hosting Plex via a hosting provider, such as OVH. Do not be surprised if they follow through with their statement to blanket-ban any ISP that harbors individuals that violate their Terms of Service. It no longer matters if your individual use case is legitimate or not – it can and will be disturbed if the company deems it necessary.
I am not a fan of the troublemakers that are causing this ban, but the method of combating these folks is egregious and not sustainable long term. Those among them who are motivated enough can easily jump to another hosting provider, causing the same problem again. The bystanders are the ones who are left actually harmed.
I understand the pressure that Plex Inc. is facing from various parties to crack down on the selling of Plex shares, but further antagonizing the user base, many of which are paying customers, is not the correct approach. Poorly thought-out decisions such as this are one of the reasons why I decided to explore other options in the first place. A lot of people are on the sidelines watching how this will play out.
I truly hope that this decision is reversed before the situation gets any worse.
I think if they wanted to get rid of personal media, they would have done it as soon as they started making more money on plex streaming than plex pass. Plex Fireside in the Forums - #211 by schuyler The fact they haven’t is good enough for me.
But everyone is entitled to their own opinion. All I ask is to keep it reasonable and considerate.
Hmm, im curious, because…
I also got the Mail, BUT i dont have a Plex Server at Hetzner anymore.
Once i had, but that was for testing purposes and few Days later i´ve removed it.
So im not sure if they sent it to me because i had it a short time, or if they also will block the IP Range of my local Internet Provider (not a Hoster, i mean my personal ISP).
Not sure now if my local home PMS will work after that blocking wave.
I am genuinely confused by this approach. I don’t have a Plex server with hetzner nor did I get an email, but does Plex not operate via accounts !? If an account is breaching TOS you should just ban the account itself !
Why ban an entire hosting company? Especially when that company is a massive provider who represent many many different types of hosting including full dedicated servers that people may have legitimately purchased.
This is absolute insanity. I have a full dedicated rack server at Hetzer that I need for various things, not only plex. If people are violating the rules, block those specific accounts. As others have said, this only impacts those of us following the rules, and everyone else will just move somewhere else. One of the reasons I got plex originally was so I could have my own installation and full control of it - something Plex has steadily worked to degrade. This is exactly the kind of thing many of us feared when they began changing how login works.
What an absolute terrible move by plex. Horrible server, horrible solution. Shame on plex.
This is a terrible, weak, lazy solution. Shame on plex. I don’t share my plex installation, it’s only for me in my house and while I’m travelling. You should give us a solution to turn off sharing or something like that so we can continue using it, at the very least. Disgusting solution, and disgusting service by plex.
Same here.
The reason why I’m not switching to Emby or something else is:
Smart guys should cover all the bases.
This is ■■■■■■■ ridiculous. I bought plex pass Livetime 1½ Months ago and now this? Who ever decided this doesn’t know there customers. I will claim a refund.
Wow, not enjoying this email I just received. Just moved my Plex instance, which is only used by my family, to Hetzner last week. I definitely do not see the point why ALL instances from a SP should be blocked on such short notice because of some bad actors. We probably will not learn the exact reason why there are doing this and if other parties are putting pressure on Plex, but the lack of transparent communication creates a precedent to not trust Plex. What guarantee do we have they are not going to block your home ISP in the future because bad actors are also using the same ISP?
Based on the current information they are providing I see no other option than to look elsewhere and ending the subscription.
Yeah, I bought a lifetime pass ~6 months ago, and now this “lifetime” means until October 12, 2023?
Nice, I got a dedicated server with dedicated IP, everything set up for personal use only. This is ridiculous. Banning entire ISPs is alarming at least. I really enjoyed using plex for years and bought a lifetime pass for this reason, but I won’t migrate my entire server just because plex won’t allow the connection to this ISP.
Lifetime customer here since 10 years or so. Basically since Plex originally forked Xbmc. I think this is very disappointing.
What is the difference between sharing an internet connection with other customers of a hosting provider and sharing an internet connection with other customers at an ISP? One has its own assigned IP address.
I realize that you’re likely put under pressure by lawyers with zero to little technical understanding, but seriously this is stupid.
God, I hate the assumption that everyone is able to self-host at home. I would LOVE to, but some of us live in studio apartments with low upload speeds, it’s simply not an option to sleep next to an array of spinny bois.
I’ve bitten through more stupid decisions from Plex than I can count, but if this goes through then I guess I’ll actually be forced to move to something else this time.
Edit: glad I didn’t buy lifetime, because if you’re leaving Plex but you have a lifetime pass they’ll be laughing all the way to the bank
I now wrote a mail to the plex billing team. I told them my displeasure and requested a refund. Lets see what happens.
its an absolute impudence.
A software manufacturer does not have to determine where the software is installed.
According to my information, this would be illegal in germany.
They’ll move to OVH, OVH will get the ban hammer. They’ll move to DigitalOcean, DO will get the ban hammer.
It’s whack-a-mole but the moles are very large IP ranges.
