In light of the gdpr I just - tried to - read the Plex ToS.
Do I understand it correctly that Plex gets full rights to use, sell, alter, distribute, etc. any content like personal (family) pictures that I add to my local PMS server?
which exact paragraph are you referring to?
https://www.plex.tv/about/privacy-legal/terms-of-service-may-2018/
@stefanvanruiten said:
In light of the gdpr I just - tried to - read the Plex ToS.Do I understand it correctly that Plex gets full rights to use, sell, alter, distribute, etc. any content like personal (family) pictures that I add to my local PMS server?
No, they do not. Nothing on your local server belongs to anyone else as long as you legally acquired the content in the first place.
this one?
- PERMISSION TO USE USER CONTENT. You continue to retain any ownership rights you have in the User Content you make available to Plex. However, by submitting or making available any type of User Content, you automatically and hereby grant to Plex a perpetual, royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable and non-exclusive right and license to adopt, publish, reproduce, disseminate, transmit, distribute, copy, use, create derivative works of, and display (in whole or in part) worldwide, or act on any such User Content, without additional approval or consideration, in furtherance of and in connection with the operation of the Plex Solution, and you hereby waive any claim to the contrary. You specifically acknowledge that the Plex Solution facilitates distribution of the User Content, and you hereby grant to any user with whom you share content a non-exclusive license to access the User Content through the Plex Solution, and to use, reproduce in copies, distribute, display and perform the shared User Content as permitted through the functionality of the Plex Solution. You represent that you have all necessary rights to make the foregoing grants and to otherwise make User Content(s) available to Plex and for (and through) the Plex Solution.
Well for example this section:
PERMISSION TO USE USER CONTENT. You continue to retain any ownership rights you have in the User Content you make available to Plex. However, by submitting or making available any type of User Content, you automatically and hereby grant to Plex a perpetual, royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable and non-exclusive right and license to adopt, publish, reproduce, disseminate, transmit, distribute, copy, use, create derivative works of, and display (in whole or in part) worldwide, or act on any such User Content, without additional approval or consideration, in furtherance of and in connection with the operation of the Plex Solution, and you hereby waive any claim to the contrary. You specifically acknowledge that the Plex Solution facilitates distribution of the User Content, and you hereby grant to any user with whom you share content a non-exclusive license to access the User Content through the Plex Solution, and to use, reproduce in copies, distribute, display and perform the shared User Content as permitted through the functionality of the Plex Solution. You represent that you have all necessary rights to make the foregoing grants and to otherwise make User Content(s) available to Plex and for (and through) the Plex Solution.
@tom80H said:
this one?
- PERMISSION TO USE USER CONTENT.
Yes 
So if I make our family vacation pics available to Grandma and Grandpa I also grant the rights to Plex to do with those whatever they choose?
Actually I had not read that part of the TOS recently and when I did read it I pretty much glossed over it since I NEVER share content with anyone. If I want to send or receive anything to someone I do it directly.
Reading through that it does appear that, if you share at all, Plex claims the right to pilfer your content to their heart’s content. I have rarely ever seen a legal document that so explicitly stomps on the appearance of people’s reasonable expectations.
I cannot believe that I missed that if was there in the past. That shows that for anyone sharing Plex has the right to pretty much raid the user’s content.
I find this VERY disturbing. If I shared my content I think I would stop using Plex completely and go to Emby even though Emby does not completely meet my needs.
The way I read that it give Plex the rights to be the worst kind of thieves, those that steal but cannot go to jail because of it.
I thought that Plex was basically honest but I am now reconsidering that position and, unless someone official from Plex explains how it is at all right, I may soon quit helping people to install Plex and recommend Emby in its place.
Of course I will read Emby’s TOS VERY carefully before taking that action but I doubt it could be ant worse.
I know any threat or other action I or any other user might take is meaningless to Plex but I have certain principals that matter to me and this is well below what I find acceptable. I just wish I had seen and ead this section well before now. I I had maybe I would not feel so angry at Plex, for being crooks, and myself for being stupid enough to be mislead.
@stefanvanruiten said:
In light of the gdpr I just - tried to - read the Plex ToS.Do I understand it correctly that Plex gets full rights to use, sell, alter, distribute, etc. any content like personal (family) pictures that I add to my local PMS server?
I’m not a lawyer but my guess is this is related to posting in forums, where you manually upload stuff to Plex. Adding stuff to PMS does not equal sharing with Plex. Plex wouldn’t even have access to that stuff. You’d have to “share” it somehow with Plex.
That section is intended to cover basic operation of the service. The first line declares that you retain ownership of your content. In order to use Plex features like uploading photos from your home computer and seeing them on your mobile device, Plex needs the right to access and copy that content in order to make everything work.
For example, when you playback a video on your iPhone there’s a few things that need to happen. We need the right to create a copy of the video that exists on your Plex Media Server, the right to create a derivative work if it’s transcoded, and the right to transmit it to your iPhone.
This paragraph is largely a carryover from our previous terms of service which were in place for nearly three years. We did notice that the “limited purpose” qualifier was removed and we’ll work with our lawyers ASAP to make make this even clearer.
The funny thing is … Plex always claimed that they don’t know what’s in our libraries. But in their TOS they want full access and all rights on the content.
Plex IS a bunch of crooks.
@ricardocastro said:
For example, when you playback a video on your iPhone there’s a few things that need to happen. We need the right to create a copy of the video that exists on your Plex Media Server, the right to create a derivative work if it’s transcoded, and the right to transmit it to your iPhone.
"However, by submitting or making available any type of User Content, you automatically and hereby grant to Plex a perpetual, royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable and non-exclusive right and license to adopt, publish, reproduce, disseminate, transmit, distribute, copy, use, create derivative works of, and display (in whole or in part) worldwide, or act on any such User Content, without additional approval or consideration, in furtherance of and in connection with the operation of the Plex Solution, and you hereby waive any claim to the contrary. "
“However, by submitting or making available any type of User Content, you automatically and hereby grant to Plex as the data processor the right to process and distribute the data according to your requirements and on your behalf.”
Why didn’t you write it like this???
@ricardocastro said:
That section is intended to cover basic operation of the service. The first line declares that you retain ownership of your content. In order to use Plex features like uploading photos from your home computer and seeing them on your mobile device, Plex needs the right to access and copy that content in order to make everything work.For example, when you playback a video on your iPhone there’s a few things that need to happen. We need the right to create a copy of the video that exists on your Plex Media Server, the right to create a derivative work if it’s transcoded, and the right to transmit it to your iPhone.
This paragraph is largely a carryover from our previous terms of service which were in place for nearly three years. We did notice that the “limited purpose” qualifier was removed and we’ll work with our lawyers ASAP to make make this even clearer.
I know stuff technically needs to happen in order to be able to see them on the move, on mobile or allow family members to see it as well, such is always the case when using phone services. But in this case my own content is on my own local server (not Google photos for example).
Why does Plex need “a perpetual, royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable and non-exclusive right and license to adopt, publish, reproduce, disseminate, transmit, distribute, copy, use, create derivative works of, and display (in whole or in part) worldwide, or act on any such User Content” in order to show my own personal content to my own relatives.
Can you or can you not allow the use of pics ofof my kids to a third party, for online use on a website for example, given this section? Yes or no?
@stefanvanruiten said: …
Can you or can you not allow the use of pics ofof my kids to a third party, for online use on a website for example, given this section? Yes or no?
I am pretty fluent in legalese and that section gives Plex the right to do EXACTLY that. I do not think Plex would do that but the TOS allows that and a LOT more.
If someone from Plex, anyone from Plex, says they will not do it that statement is meaningless unless that part of the TOS is changed.
My further concern is that with that clause in the current TOS it implies the ability to take any shared content and make a copy to do anything with it. That ability is scary even if the TOS changes because that means our data is only protected by words if we share at all.
@stefanvanruiten said:
@ricardocastro said:
@Elijah_Baley said:
So what ever happened to some faith, if your that concerned flick Plex. I can not understand the stance of all this dose. Guys it’s simple no trust go elsewhere.
@SE56 said:
So what ever happened to some faith, if your that concerned flick Plex. I can not understand the stance of all this dose. Guys it’s simple no trust go elsewhere.
If you get slapped into the face by some dodgy crook … wouldn’t you complain!!!
@SE56 said:
@stefanvanruiten said:
@ricardocastro said:
@Elijah_Baley said:So what ever happened to some faith, if your that concerned flick Plex. I can not understand the stance of all this dose. Guys it’s simple no trust go elsewhere.
For me it’s not a question of faith, nor am I badmouthing about it. And since the data collection fiasco I am a bit more wary admittedly. I don’t think Plex would perse sell my kid’s pics outright, but if they wouldn’t … Why would they need the right to? Why do they need to basically own all my local media?
I understand for movies a hash and stuff needs to be transmitted to Plex in order to match the media for posters and subtitles, but to be able to share my private content with marketeers for profiling purposes for example?
@stefanvanruiten said:
@SE56 said:
@stefanvanruiten said:
@ricardocastro said:
@Elijah_Baley said:So what ever happened to some faith, if your that concerned flick Plex. I can not understand the stance of all this dose. Guys it’s simple no trust go elsewhere.
For me it’s not a question of faith, nor am I badmouthing about it. And since the data collection fiasco I am a bit more wary admittedly. I don’t think Plex would perse sell my kid’s pics outright, but if they wouldn’t … Why would they need the right to? Why do they need to basically own all my local media?
I understand for movies a hash and stuff needs to be transmitted to Plex in order to match the media for posters and subtitles, but to be able to share my private content with marketeers for profiling purposes for example?
A big stretch, settle down. I understand the ideal and all but why are you still here with all the gremlin nasty ideology?
@SE56 said:
A big stretch, settle down. I understand the ideal and all but why are you still here with all the gremlin nasty ideology?
No need to be so harsh about it, in the GDPR a company has to collect as little data as possible and the data it does collect it needs to clearly explain why it is necessary for them to do so. So no harm in asking polite questions here right? I think this is possibly quite risky, what if Plex were to be bought out or runs into liquidity issues?
@stefanvanruiten said:
@SE56 said:
A big stretch, settle down. I understand the ideal and all but why are you still here with all the gremlin nasty ideology?No need to be so harsh about it, in the GDPR a company has to collect as little data as possible and the data it does collect it needs to clearly explain why it is necessary for them to do so. So no harm in asking polite questions here right? I think this is possibly quite risky, what if Plex were to be bought out or runs into liquidity issues?
Sorry for being perceived harsh but you Avatar is a bit confronting to me. I see your point, VPN is king.
Plex is following the Facebook business model. I feel a Plex testimony on capitol hill coming…(not really).
Why not change your business model to a monthly subscription? It’s appears to me that Emby will win in the end because they have recurring revenue and can forecast a budget appropriately (and don’t have to take on investors for a free service).
Maybe I’m the only one, but paying a few $ a month, even though I already have a lifetime pass, wouldn’t bother me if it meant all these privacy concerns would go away. I like companies with good business models and revenue streams. Not ones that bank on their customers to give up data haha.
