Yeah, citation needed on that one. I know they're pushing their own streaming to try to pivot toward "legitimacy", but I think we all know why the platform is so popular.

[–] WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com 30 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

We all know what Plex is for—the weird streaming integration wasn’t even part of the original design. They have to act like they don’t approve of the pirates because it keeps them from being next on the litigation chopping block.

They’ve done some annoying things in the last 5 years, but there is a huge gulf between tech literate people and the tech illiterate entertainment business. They know this, and they say the things they need to say to keep on keeping on.

Meanwhile, they have not reduced the 100 account limit for sharing with others, nor have they tried to paywall account sharing services as a business plan. Seems like their actions don’t threaten us salty sea-dogs at all.

[–] herrcaptain@lemmy.ca 9 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Oh, for sure. I get that they need to play the optics game and I (for the most part) am happy with Plex in its current state. I definitely agree they have to walk a fine line.

However, I think it's inevitable that they'll eventually go the way of every for-profit tech company and continue to water down their platform. I'd love to move to jellyfin but my previous run with it was much less smooth on the user side than Plex is. Hopefully in time it'll be just as bug-free, but even then I'm not looking forward to onboarding all my users.

[–] WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 7 months ago

Idk, Plex knows Jellyfin exists, and they know that their server users are experienced enough to make the switch if needed. Without the people running servers, they are just a shitty Netflix spinoff in an already over saturated market.

I think the most likely route that Plex will take is the one they have already started to—exploiting the non-server-running users to accidentally make use of the streaming and rental services. I’ve had total dolts in my sharing community who were logged out for a month and then asking me why Plex had adds all of a sudden.

I’m somewhat ok with this. Users who can’t tell the difference between being logged in and logged out are going to get what they get. If they’d just make library the default view over recommended again, we’d be totally square.

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I've done it. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and I have some older people using it who are tech illeterate.

[–] herrcaptain@lemmy.ca 1 points 7 months ago

Good to know. Regardless, as much as I expect it to be inevitable I'm gonna put it off until I really feel the need.

[–] neo@lemmy.comfysnug.space 6 points 7 months ago

As a pirate, I understand the necessity of pretending that they don't like us. I am fine with it until it becomes a situation where they actually don't like us anymore.

[–] smileyhead@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 7 months ago

This is true. But honestly even if most of media I watch is from "sharing" sources, without seeing nice covers on my Jellyfin instance and Kodi app I would not buy so many movies and music eather.

Not speaking for everyone, this is just how I am but once every a couple of months I order some movies even if already watched because I... like this. Having separated bought and downloaded media is nice and seeing bought directory is satisfying, even if media companies seems to not let me easly buy things nowadays...