Plex Asks GitHub to Take Down 'Reshare' Repository over Piracy Fears(torrentfreak.com)
torrentfreak.com
Plex Asks GitHub to Take Down 'Reshare' Repository over Piracy Fears
https://torrentfreak.com/plex-asks-github-to-take-down-reshare-repository-over-piracy-fears-240404/
41 comments
You may jest, but Microsoft is the single biggest facilitator of piracy on the planet.
Only when the “copy” function is removed from windows will copyright holders be able to rest safe.
Only when the “copy” function is removed from windows will copyright holders be able to rest safe.
> Microsoft is the single biggest facilitator of piracy on the planet.
And Windows is most pirated OS.
And Windows is most pirated OS.
I don’t remember them doing much about fckgw - I’m pretty sure piracy was part of their adoption strategy. Now they just give it away, which if anything underscores that.
and they didn't fight it so they didn't have to count pirated copies of it for anti-monopoly antitrust investigations.
OpenAI is based on piracy, Google as well.
Plex has been user-hostile for a long time, this isn't surprising. Vote with your feet: Jellyfin is just as good, been running it since it came out, no regrets.
I’m trying to understand the notice and the article and it seems like Plex is alleging a general infringement on the Plex Server rather than suggesting the vague explanation given in the article? (Though the language is quite oddly phrased, so Torrentfreak’s interpretation also makes sense)
In that case, I wonder if they’re trying to claim API copyright or if there’s something more substantial behind it. There’s also the trademark matter and IANAL, but I don’t think that’d go through DMCA requests?
In that case, I wonder if they’re trying to claim API copyright or if there’s something more substantial behind it. There’s also the trademark matter and IANAL, but I don’t think that’d go through DMCA requests?
It goes like this:
XBMC forks, becomes Plex
Plex devs decide to charge membership. Requires a payment processor.
Payment processors get very twitchy around anything that could involve piracy
So Plex take an aggressive anti-piracy stance, despite it being the primary use case for their software. In this case an unauthorised use takedown.
XBMC forks, becomes Plex
Plex devs decide to charge membership. Requires a payment processor.
Payment processors get very twitchy around anything that could involve piracy
So Plex take an aggressive anti-piracy stance, despite it being the primary use case for their software. In this case an unauthorised use takedown.
I’m with you thus far, but I’m trying to parse the notice to see why GitHub is even complying (see https://github.com/github/dmca/blob/master/2024/03/2024-03-1... ) and I think Torrentfreak got it wrong. I think they’re trying to claim infringement on Plex Server, but the English in the takedown notice is barely legible (and it feels like a mixup between trademarks and copyright), to the point that I find GitHub’s compliance odd.
> We have found infringing material in your website which indeed is OTHER 'Plex Server'.
It would appear Plex are claiming there was 'Plex Server' in the repo.
It would appear Plex are claiming there was 'Plex Server' in the repo.
As a rule it’s “comply first, ask questions later” - you can end up culpable for damages if you don’t immediately take down.
The answer is simple: Jellyfin
I haven't tried Plex, and use Jellyfin, but I have to say, the UI on Jellyfin is absolutely atrocious.
I wish there was simply a way to make it show me the files I have available, for instance. There seems to be no way to do that. Instead, it insists on auto-detecting everything and then showing some preview image for that, along with some info scraped from the internet somewhere. It sounds nice, but instead when I want to watch "Space: 1999", it tells me I only have episodes of "Space Jam" or some other show I've never heard of. Or, it tells me I have no shows at all, but the shows are instead in the "Movies" section, or somewhere else entirely in the UI. It's bizarre.
I can see why a lot of people would get frustrated with it.
I wish there was simply a way to make it show me the files I have available, for instance. There seems to be no way to do that. Instead, it insists on auto-detecting everything and then showing some preview image for that, along with some info scraped from the internet somewhere. It sounds nice, but instead when I want to watch "Space: 1999", it tells me I only have episodes of "Space Jam" or some other show I've never heard of. Or, it tells me I have no shows at all, but the shows are instead in the "Movies" section, or somewhere else entirely in the UI. It's bizarre.
I can see why a lot of people would get frustrated with it.
>show me the files I have available
This is what I want most of the time too, so I love Kodi (media scanning/detection disabled. direct play from a share on my LAN).
We installed Jellyfin recently and noticed an option in Dashboard - Libraries -Display - "Display a folder view to show plain media folders". Haven't tested that fully yet.
Plex friends inform me it can't do a folders/files view at all :(
This is what I want most of the time too, so I love Kodi (media scanning/detection disabled. direct play from a share on my LAN).
We installed Jellyfin recently and noticed an option in Dashboard - Libraries -Display - "Display a folder view to show plain media folders". Haven't tested that fully yet.
Plex friends inform me it can't do a folders/files view at all :(
I'm busy moving from Plex to Jellyfin.
The Plex UI is better but only a little bit better. On the other hand they are really REALLY irritating with re-enabling their online adverts. Every time you upgrade its comes back again. Or your actual content ends up deep in a menu but the online nonsense is always there. Also you end up having to create a plex account to access your stuff and I don't know how much information they are tracking.
I just got tired of having to re-set it up all the time. Jellyfin seems much better so far, but its still early days for me.
The Plex UI is better but only a little bit better. On the other hand they are really REALLY irritating with re-enabling their online adverts. Every time you upgrade its comes back again. Or your actual content ends up deep in a menu but the online nonsense is always there. Also you end up having to create a plex account to access your stuff and I don't know how much information they are tracking.
I just got tired of having to re-set it up all the time. Jellyfin seems much better so far, but its still early days for me.
How are your files organized? Do you have them as one big mixed library? I use Jellyfin and haven't had any issues like that. I organize things into several libraries like Television, Movies, etc.
Yes, they're just in my ~/Videos directory. I copy stuff in there when I want to watch it immediately, or in the near future, and then delete it when I'm done, with my main archive on offline storage. I guess I don't fit their assumed use-case which is having your entire library online for your whole extended family to watch; I just want something I can use from my TV so I don't have to copy files onto USB sticks, and can watch files > 4GB.
Jellyfish is just nowhere near Plex’s UX. All the clients crash seemingly at random, and the server side is no better.
Yeah, I forgot about that: the client on my Android TV frequently crashes on start-up.
I haven't had any trouble at all with the server side though (Linux).
I haven't had any trouble at all with the server side though (Linux).
UI/UX is the achilles heel of many open source projects not backed by a business unfortunately. Gimp comes to mind, which has almost all features of its competitors but the UI will never let it grow.
These days when someone Jellyfin it just tells me that we care about very very very different things. Some people have a tolerance for bad UIs. I don’t. I also never really seem to have the Plex issues that everyone else does. I disable the “free” content and it pretty much entirely stays away. I can’t member the last time I saw it.
By following the same vague “can be used to grow piracy” logic, there’s a pretty big percentage of github repos that can be slapped with a DMCA and taken down..
> "can be used to grow piracy"
By that metric github should be taken down.
By that metric github should be taken down.
The whole internet, really.
Computers should simply be banned in the US since they facilitate piracy.
To end piracy, all creators must halt all creation.
> In an effort to "avoid the growth of piracy", Plex asked GitHub to remove a repository that allows people to reshare libraries that were not originally theirs.
I am so sick of the policing of copying of data masquerading as "intellectual property" or "rights". These terms are so insidious: to be against "property" makes it sound like some bizarre fringe view, and to scoff at the "intellectual" kind makes it sound like you don't care about other people's thoughts (when obviously the opposite is true).
It's so completely obvious that these systems of control can't survive an environment of low-friction copy and transit of data. We're on the cusp, as a species, of finally shucking off this nonsense and enshrining the traditions of free copying and remixing and collaboration.
...so what's the point of continuing the pretense? Who is winning here? The banks whose logos paint the skyline of West Nashville? (I'm in East Nashville as I write this).
All it's going to take is one sovereign jurisdiction refusing to play along, and then everyone will just use internet services in that jurisdiction.
It seems like a house of cards that is going to fall very quickly.
Are we ready for that?
I am so sick of the policing of copying of data masquerading as "intellectual property" or "rights". These terms are so insidious: to be against "property" makes it sound like some bizarre fringe view, and to scoff at the "intellectual" kind makes it sound like you don't care about other people's thoughts (when obviously the opposite is true).
It's so completely obvious that these systems of control can't survive an environment of low-friction copy and transit of data. We're on the cusp, as a species, of finally shucking off this nonsense and enshrining the traditions of free copying and remixing and collaboration.
...so what's the point of continuing the pretense? Who is winning here? The banks whose logos paint the skyline of West Nashville? (I'm in East Nashville as I write this).
All it's going to take is one sovereign jurisdiction refusing to play along, and then everyone will just use internet services in that jurisdiction.
It seems like a house of cards that is going to fall very quickly.
Are we ready for that?
We've been there for a while. The pirate bay is 23 years old today. LibGen, Anna's archive, MEGA; many other services. They're all out there on the vast Internet. it's not a new problem.
Between BitTorrent and Cloudflare R2, one could distribute a file to everyone connected to the Internet for a pittance. For digital files, there is no scarcity of the files themselves. Creating the files is a different matter, but the distribution of digital data on a planetary scale is so doable it's silly we're getting in our own way with this artificial system. Creators need to be compensated, absolutely, but DRM making bits not copyable is like trying to make water not wet.
Between BitTorrent and Cloudflare R2, one could distribute a file to everyone connected to the Internet for a pittance. For digital files, there is no scarcity of the files themselves. Creating the files is a different matter, but the distribution of digital data on a planetary scale is so doable it's silly we're getting in our own way with this artificial system. Creators need to be compensated, absolutely, but DRM making bits not copyable is like trying to make water not wet.
> Creators need to be compensated, absolutely,
I'm working full-time on this issue, just in the context of my own music project. Stay tuned!
I'm working full-time on this issue, just in the context of my own music project. Stay tuned!
update: Just cut five more bluegrass tracks in East Nashville. :-)
You'll hear them soon. You can hear my last record here: https://justinholmes.com/music/vowel-sounds/
You'll hear them soon. You can hear my last record here: https://justinholmes.com/music/vowel-sounds/
> ... "trying to make water not wet."
I'm working full-time on this issue, with zero success thus far. When I do finally succeed, I'ma get filthy rich sellin' "Dehydrated Water" (Just Add Water).
I'm working full-time on this issue, with zero success thus far. When I do finally succeed, I'ma get filthy rich sellin' "Dehydrated Water" (Just Add Water).
I did not know that existed until now... I wonder where a fork is :-P
https://github.com/vladiiancu/plex-reshare
Can't stop the signal
Can't stop the signal
Same here, I got the python code by extracting it from its docker image https://hub.docker.com/r/peterbuga/plex-reshare and will start using it.
TL;DR: They asked Github to take down a repository that acted as a Plex share proxy.
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If I understand it correctly, this software allows you to bypass some Plex sharing permissions by allowing you to re-share other people's libraries.
While this can be seen as DMCA abuse by Plex, I personally think it's partially justified (it probably goes against the TOS), and no "regular" user would need it.
It's not a surprise, since they are constantly at "war" against people who use their software to do illegal business. Since their software is relatively polished and well-supported across multiple platforms, some use it to build Netflix clones with illegal content. The repository referenced by the article is probably a helpful tool for such actors.
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If I understand it correctly, this software allows you to bypass some Plex sharing permissions by allowing you to re-share other people's libraries.
While this can be seen as DMCA abuse by Plex, I personally think it's partially justified (it probably goes against the TOS), and no "regular" user would need it.
It's not a surprise, since they are constantly at "war" against people who use their software to do illegal business. Since their software is relatively polished and well-supported across multiple platforms, some use it to build Netflix clones with illegal content. The repository referenced by the article is probably a helpful tool for such actors.
Perfect Streisand effect.
Can someone in the US please ask for DMCA takedowns against all of Microsoft's repositories? I've seen plenty of people using Microsoft products to "grow" piracy. Including github itself.