Tl;dr I rant about how ridiculous it is that people are freaking out over so many made up issues with Plex Cloud.
I can’t believe the amount of freaking out that is going on over Plex Cloud. When I saw the announcement, I was ecstatic. This was something I’d been hoping would happen ever since I started using Plex.
There were a few misgivings I had initially:
- Why Amazon storage? I didn’t even know that they offered such a service. I’d much rather use Google Drive.
- Why can’t I encrypt all my files in the storage layer so Amazon can’t see them?
- Would Amazon scan my files for pirated content (not that I have any) and what if they pull a Bitcasa/OneDrive and terminate “unlimited”?
After maybe a minute of rational thought, I was able to dismiss all these issues.
- Amazon offers unlimited storage at a cheap price. Frictionless entry ($60 is not bad).
- Plex can’t be doing anything that would lead to them aiding and abetting users in masking their piracy. I’d hate to see Plex get in trouble for anything.
- This is the kicker. I’ll discuss it further below.
Content with that, I registered for the beta, and started uploading my content to Amazon in anticipation (still waiting ever so impatiently 8-}).
Since I was so excited by this, I went against my better judgement, and started reading comments on announcement articles. It was like getting hit by a sheer wave of stupidity. A brave mod was attempting to respond to these idiots (granted some of them may have just been looking for information, but the vast majority are idiots), but it was no use. I’ve seen various explanations for the stupidity, ranging from JPOD (Just Plain Old Dummies), to sponsored trolling from the movie industry and Plex’s competitors, but it doesn’t matter. The fear mongering has begun. I’ve seen tech crunch articles now warning about using Plex Cloud.
The main gripe that people have is that Plex is purposely putting them in a position where they will upload their pirated content to Amazon, who will promptly shut down their account, causing them to lose all their data, and the MPAA will sue them. [Granted this next part is more about user’s not understanding the tech that they use, but hey, it’s a rant] Until that happens, Plex will be busy blowing through your data caps by uploading then downloading then reuploading and redownloading files every time you want to play a video. Of course they will limit this by only allowing one connection at a time. Naturally they’ll charge a boatload for this. “What’s that? A Plex employee says that none of that is true? Let’s ignore him and make up more BS”!
The misinformation continued to grow. I saw rational answers and explanations from the mods and community summarily dismissed, or better yet, used to soon even greater conspiracy theories.
Even though it is stupidity, it still should be addressed.
People, think about it. Plex is a profitable company with a great track record of user friendliness. The community is well built and strong. They are well aware of what a percentage of their users have Plex for. I’ll allow myself to speculate that they didn’t build Plex Cloud for home videos.
This has obviously been a well thought out feature. The preparedness of the mods shows that they knew what kind of troll response there would be, and they were ready for it. Do you think they completely glossed over the fact that Amazon could terminate the “unlimited” clause of their service, or scan for copyright violations? They ain’t stupid. Of course they took that into account.
I have no knowledge of any communication between Amazon and Plex. I’d bet money that there was/is. This is too big of an undertaking for Plex to just wing it.
Think about it from Plex’s perspective. They have 0 to gain by their users being frustrated by a crippled server, with their content getting locked away, while they get sued. I can’t believe that had to be said out loud. They want the best experience for their users. Plex Cloud is an amazing opportunity for them to win over users who don’t want to have to setup and maintain a server, worry about bandwidth, or just think it’s pretty frikin cool (personally I’ve been spending way too much time dreaming about the implementation - which I know the team doesn’t want to discuss).
Think about it from Amazon’s perspective. They have a cloud storage offering. They’ve seen what’s happened to previous players in the field of unlimited storage. What they have here is a golden egg of a huge increase in $60 a year subscriptions. I never would have even knew that Amazon had a cloud storage solution, and even if I did, I never would’ve used it if it weren’t for Plex Cloud. Amazon has little interest in losing all these users.
There was a line constantly repeated by a Plex mod in response to questions of Amazon shutting down accounts, and taking legal action. It was a bit coy, but I’ll repeat it here (shoutout to Emilio)
don’t try to run a streaming media business and you will likely be fine.
Seriously folks, Plex is here to help you. Don’t abuse the system, use it as it was intended, and you’ll be fine. Cut the stupidity!
PS don’t use Amazon storage as an excuse to not backup your data. Problem solved!
