Plex Accounts Getting Disabled

This is why it&#x27;s better to control your software. Firms change over time and your interests are likely to diverge from theirs. This is _especially_ true when we&#x27;re talking about media-related software which is always contentious in terms of copyright.<p>Jellyfin isn&#x27;t as feature-rich or polished as Plex, but I rest assured knowing that I&#x27;m the one who controls my installation.

I know people with large networks of people paying $10&#x2F;month for access to pirated content.<p>I have my own Jellyfin server with pirated content for myself and mother, but I don&#x27;t feel good charging money for &quot;stolen&quot; things.<p>Stealing to eat is one thing, stealing bread to sell for profit is different.

VLC player paired with a network share does pretty much everything I need to watch local media. I have a Jellyfin instance, and I do like it, but I often find myself falling back to VLC for one reason or another.

I keep both Plex and Jellyfin installed on my server with the same media. Plex is easier to navigate for my family than Jellyfin (specifically their respective Roku apps). But the way that Plex is pushing their monetization with ads and now rentals, and now shenanigans like this, I feel it&#x27;s time to fully migrate to Jellyfin. I should learn Roku development so I can contribute to their app...

The linked thread is such a good example of why I quit reddit, the discourse is often so frustratingly stupid, there are always contrarians acting like &quot;they shouldn&#x27;t ban you for X&quot;=&quot;they can&#x27;t ban you for X&quot;, and then there&#x27;s the unnecessary whining about upvotes and downvotes.<p>Plex is such a weird project though, they should&#x27;ve been able to see that they&#x27;d have to start clamping down on the sharing as they went in the direction of being a more typical streaming service. I wonder, did they think that their users would just accept that? or did they figure that they could pull in more typical users fast enough to sustain themselves?<p>My personal Plex server is just single user and I only connect to it from my own desktop, phone, tablet or laptop, so I&#x27;m not too worried. I wouldn&#x27;t mind using jellyfin for video, but for music I haven&#x27;t really come across a player comparable to plexamp. The AI driven &quot;DJ&quot; options are a very nice idea.

If you look at the thread, there’s at least one person who claims to not be taking money for their Plex server that was confronted with a screenshot of them selling access to their Plex server.<p>Stop selling stuff you don’t have the right to sell, and no one will bat an eye at you.

Use Emby, it&#x27;s much more focused on accessing your own files, while Plex has shifted towards ad supported movies which are accessible in a million other ways. I assume that&#x27;s why they are cancelling users who actually use their own stuff.

Speaking of Plex alternatives, does anyone have a great alternative to Plexamp (Plex&#x27;s local music player)? [1]<p>[1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.plex.tv&#x2F;plexamp&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.plex.tv&#x2F;plexamp&#x2F;</a>

Imagine giving some company the ability to disable a server on your own network.

Is this perhaps people who don’t have port forwarding setup and are costing Plex money on their proxy?

Jellyfin.

Whenever I see developments like this to a product, I can’t help but think of Cory Doctorow‘s stages of enshitification (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pluralistic.net&#x2F;2023&#x2F;01&#x2F;21&#x2F;potemkin-ai&#x2F;#hey-guys" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pluralistic.net&#x2F;2023&#x2F;01&#x2F;21&#x2F;potemkin-ai&#x2F;#hey-guys</a>).

This is the reason I roll my eyes when millennials talk about setting up “their plex” or “their discord”. It’s not your sandcastle if someone else owns the sandbox.

I remember when Apple gave iTunes a streaming feature so you could listen to your music on the go. You could connect to your home computer and access your entire library. That feature was gone almost immediately due to people broadcasting to strangers on the internet. Stupid &#x2F; greedy &#x2F; thoughtless people stole that feature from me.<p>Don&#x27;t be surprised when acts against corporate interests get slapped. Be surprised when they don&#x27;t.