I’ve got a ton of non-video related stuff in my Google Drive. Is there a way I can grant Plex Cloud access to only a Sub Directory on my Google Drive? When connecting Plex Cloud to my Google account, it is asking to:
"View and manage the files in your Google Drive"
When you setup a library just set the subdirectory you want to use for Plex. Be aware that all content for Plex must be non-encrypted so that Plex can read it.
Thanks. The Google Drive permission request is what I am not comfortable with. It seems like I just need to trust that Plex isn’t going to access files in my Google Drive that I don’t explicitly tell it to use.
Please keep in mind that Google Drive runs a hash check on its servers to check for any content that you host on the cloud. If the service finds that it breaks with their Terms of Service, they will discontinue your account.
You’re better off in not using Plex Cloud, as cool as it would be to use. The legal burden is too great to put content on there and then you lose access to the account because of Plex, who will not fight to get your account back. The company wants to run a cloud service off the backs of cloud providers who have their rules, as ancient as they may be, on hosting content.
Please refer to this article:
@SanchezHouse said:
@omkar
https://www.extremetech.com/computing/179495-how-dropbox-knows-youre-a-dirty-pirate-and-why-you-shouldnt-use-cloud-storage-to-share-copyrighted-files
…and while all of that is true, Plex Cloud does not use the sharing feature of any of the cloud providers that would trigger a hash check.
Then, when Dropbox receives a DMCA request from a copyright holder — say, Disney or Universal Music — Dropbox adds the hash of that copyrighted file to a list. Any time you try to share a file on Dropbox, its hash is checked against the list of known-to-be-copyrighted hashes — and if there’s a match, Dropbox blocks you like so:
When you setup Plex Cloud and link your Dropbox account or any account, you are sharing a file
You do not have to share within Plex because Plex is not the host cloud service, the cloud providers are.
@SanchezHouse said:
@hthighway,When you setup Plex Cloud and link your Dropbox account or any account, you are sharing a file
You do not have to share within Plex because Plex is not the host cloud service, the cloud providers are.
Don’t you think then the author of the article would simply write, anytime you upload a file to Dropbox it is checked against the hash list if that were the case? Why write share a file then, which to me, implies using the share feature of the cloud provider?
Let’s say you are on Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive and you want to access content on your e-mail client from these services. According to the cloud providers, you are sharing content to your email provider if you open access between the e-mail client and the cloud provider.
The author of the article is simply discussing what happens when a file is uploaded to these servers, the hash list is used.
The fact that you are linking Plex and Dropbox or any other cloud provider is sharing. As it is, cloud providers is meant to access information from a dedicated app from that provider (e.g. Dropbox for Mac, iOS, PC). When you link to other services, now you are sharing content. Make sense?
@SanchezHouse said:
@hthighwayLet’s say you are on Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive and you want to access content on your e-mail client from these services. According to the cloud providers, you are sharing content to your email provider if you open access between the e-mail client and the cloud provider.
The author of the article is simply discussing what happens when a file is uploaded to these servers, the hash list is used.
The fact that you are linking Plex and Dropbox or any other cloud provider is sharing. As it is, cloud providers is meant to access information from a dedicated app from that provider (e.g. Dropbox for Mac, iOS, PC). When you link to other services, now you are sharing content. Make sense?
…and you are basing this info on what?
Your only reference, the article, doesn’t support these statments
I have e-mailed the providers available for Plex Cloud and this is a paraphrasing I have been getting from them.
To provide one of the responses from Microsoft, here is what they’ve stated on the matter:
I would like to inform you that linking OneDrive to any third party application is not supported from Microsoft. It is against the Microsoft’s Terms of Service.
Google and Dropbox echoed the same response as if they were all working together on these types of questions asked by them on this topic.
@SanchezHouse said:
@hthighway -I have e-mailed the providers available for Plex Cloud and this is a paraphrasing I have been getting from them.
To provide one of the responses from Microsoft, here is what they’ve stated on the matter:
I would like to inform you that linking OneDrive to any third party application is not supported from Microsoft. It is against the Microsoft’s Terms of Service.
Google and Dropbox echoed the same response as if they were all working together on these types of questions asked by them on this topic.
and that has nothing to do with when a cloud provider checks a hash list.
Or rephrased, what does that have to do with when a cloud provider may check a hash list
@hthighway said:
@SanchezHouse said:
@hthighway -I have e-mailed the providers available for Plex Cloud and this is a paraphrasing I have been getting from them.
To provide one of the responses from Microsoft, here is what they’ve stated on the matter:
I would like to inform you that linking OneDrive to any third party application is not supported from Microsoft. It is against the Microsoft’s Terms of Service.
Google and Dropbox echoed the same response as if they were all working together on these types of questions asked by them on this topic.
and that has nothing to do with when a cloud provider checks a hash list.
and that can be asked by the cloud provider of your choice. This is simply based on what that author had apparently researched. I cannot speak to that. What this speaks to is whether it is legal or rather endorsed by the cloud provider or not. Just because you can use a cloud provider to use this feature does not mean that the cloud provider will allow you to use it at any time.
@SanchezHouse said:
and that can be asked by the cloud provider of your choice. This is simply based on what that author had apparently researched. I cannot speak to that. What this speaks to is whether it is legal or rather endorsed by the cloud provider or not. Just because you can use a cloud provider to use this feature does not mean that the cloud provider will allow you to use it at any time.
So we are moving on from the point of the article on how and when cloud providers check against a hashes list and to something else?
@hthighway said:
@SanchezHouse said:
and that can be asked by the cloud provider of your choice. This is simply based on what that author had apparently researched. I cannot speak to that. What this speaks to is whether it is legal or rather endorsed by the cloud provider or not. Just because you can use a cloud provider to use this feature does not mean that the cloud provider will allow you to use it at any time.So we are moving on from the point of the article on how and when cloud providers check against a hashes list and to something else?
The point has already been made. Hash check do happen. It’s part of cloud computing. Any questions regarding how a specific cloud provider decides to perform this should be taken up with them. Good luck as to whether or not they will fully tell you, but it does happen.
I believe what can be agreed upon here is the legal burden on Plex to allow for this feature to exist entirely. The fact that they have no disclaimer about this feature and the risks you could be putting yourself in is quite alarming.
for further reading here an article (about Google Drive) that’s a bit more recent (2017 vs 2014) inditing that it is indeed when a user uses the share link that the hash is checked against a list
REF: Google Drive Uses Hash Matching to Detect Pirated Content
@SanchezHouse said:
I believe what can be agreed upon here is the legal burden on Plex to allow for this feature to exist entirely. The fact that they have no disclaimer about this feature and the risks you could be putting yourself in is quite alarming.
Nope! The legal burden is on the user. Not on Plex and not on Google or any other storage provider.
If you do not have content that is illegal and you do not illegally share your content with others then you have no major problem with legality.
I can just about guarantee that if there are ever successful legal challenges involving Plex Cloud the defendants will be whatever users are involved.
Of course as soon as you involve lawyers and juries all logic goes out the window, when you consider the kind of case that actually wins like the case where a man was making a phone call at a old style phone booth when a Truck on a nearby freeway blew a tire and tapped the side of a car that lost control and hit another car and that car went off the road, through a chain link fence, down an embankment, over a retaining wall, through two more fences, jumped a curb and hit the booth.
The man then sued the Phone Company and won a judgment for several million dollars.
So, after a fair amount of consideration I have decided that I will not use Plex Cloud even though I own all my content and I do not share. I can easily see some upholstered parasite (lawyer) suing saying that I illegally shared my content with myself and wining because some jury was too stupid to see the absurdity of the claim.
“Juries scare me. I don’t want to put my faith in 12 people who weren’t smart enough to get out of jury duty.” Monica Piper
@Elijah_Baley said:
@SanchezHouse said:
I believe what can be agreed upon here is the legal burden on Plex to allow for this feature to exist entirely. The fact that they have no disclaimer about this feature and the risks you could be putting yourself in is quite alarming.
Nope! The legal burden is on the user. Not on Plex and not on Google or any other storage provider.
If you do not have content that is illegal and you do not illegally share your content with others then you have no major problem with legality.
I can just about guarantee that if there are ever successful legal challenges involving Plex Cloud the defendants will be whatever users are involved.
Of course as soon as you involve lawyers and juries all logic goes out the window, when you consider the kind of case that actually wins like the case where a man was making a phone call at a old style phone booth when a Truck on a nearby freeway blew a tire and tapped the side of a car that lost control and hit another car and that car went off the road, through a chain link fence, down an embankment, over a retaining wall, through two more fences, jumped a curb and hit the booth.
The man then sued the Phone Company and won a judgment for several million dollars.
So, after a fair amount of consideration I have decided that I will not use Plex Cloud even though I own all my content and I do not share. I can easily see some upholstered parasite (lawyer) suing saying that I illegally shared my content with myself and wining because some jury was too stupid to see the absurdity of the claim.
“Juries scare me. I don’t want to put my faith in 12 people who weren’t smart enough to get out of jury duty.” Monica Piper
The legal burden is on Plex… on a case-by-case basis.
If you know you have uploaded content that you own and want to share to your other devices, that legal burden is on Plex. If the content you upload is not legal, then the legal burden is on you.
The important factor to understand here is that Plex is using a cloud company for purposes that go against their policies. It’s a smart idea in theory, but it should stay there.
Remember the “law” is not what is written but rather it is whatever some lawyer can convince other people/juries/judges what was intended by what was written.
The purpose of legal language is the same as the purpose of poetry: “To obscure meaning with language.”
Laws are not really “laws” they are opinions and agreements/TOS are not what they say they are what the legal system decides what they were meant to say.
But one fairly common interpretation of agreements like these is that if a company provides an ability to do something there is no tort or other violation until an action that violates the agreement takes place and the responsible party is the one taking the final action or the one taking the last action that puts the final action in violation.
That is there person that puts a file on Google and then plays it in any way that violates the TOS is twice in violation. Once when they supply the file for sharing and next when they play it. BUT there is no violation until the playback happens under one interpretation of the agreement.
But, again, it is all about interpretation so what is a violation and who is responsible is determined in the court system and while it is often a good idea to “sue the money” it is also a good idea to “sue whoever is least able to put up a good fight.” The target depends not on the law but rather where the most likely gain is. Suing users is easier than suing a company even though the final reward is smaller.
Gee, even that attempt a presenting a simple got complicated fast and left a whole bunch of “what ifs” unexplored.
That shows a reason why I abandoned law after just a few years. I like precision and law is messy in the extreme. I also got tired of money being able to buy justice.
@SanchezHouse said:
@hthighway -I have e-mailed the providers available for Plex Cloud and this is a paraphrasing I have been getting from them.
To provide one of the responses from Microsoft, here is what they’ve stated on the matter:
I would like to inform you that linking OneDrive to any third party application is not supported from Microsoft. It is against the Microsoft’s Terms of Service.
Google and Dropbox echoed the same response as if they were all working together on these types of questions asked by them on this topic.
Back to the point for a moment, do you not find it odd that a cloud provider would respond to you in this manner when they clearly provide a complete API for 3rd party development?
@hthighway said:
@SanchezHouse said:
@hthighway -I have e-mailed the providers available for Plex Cloud and this is a paraphrasing I have been getting from them.
To provide one of the responses from Microsoft, here is what they’ve stated on the matter:
I would like to inform you that linking OneDrive to any third party application is not supported from Microsoft. It is against the Microsoft’s Terms of Service.
Google and Dropbox echoed the same response as if they were all working together on these types of questions asked by them on this topic.
Back to the point for a moment, do you not find it odd that a cloud provider would respond to you in this manner when they clearly provide a complete API for 3rd party development?
Actually it is exactly the kind of thing I expect from corporations. Saying it is OK and not OK at the same time is simply setting up for being able to argue whichever side seems most advantageous at some future point.
Again it is NOT about the law, it is not about right and wrong and it is not about what agreements actually say; rather it is about what the lawyers can convince other lawyers or juries is meant by the agreements. By making statements and taking actions kind of on both sides Google is simply showing great confidence in their legal team. Google believes that whatever outcome in any litigation most helps or least hurts Google can be effectively argued by their team without any regard for what is actual reality.
