this post was submitted on 26 May 2026
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I've been thinking about this more and more. According to the sidebar, this community is "A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don’t control." Based on that I don't think Plex qualifies.

Privacy: Plex clearly records the metadata of what you watch. When I used it, it would send me a report by email of what my "friends" were watching. Even with that turned off, their services still track telemetry.

Control: Plex has all of it. They can (and do) make unilateral changes to the service, how authentication works, where you can run it, etc.

So I ask, when you are hosting something that is entirely dependent on a commercial entity to function, is Plex really selfhosting in the spirit of this community?

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[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Due to the DMCA by circumventing the copyright to rip your DVDs you are technically breaking the law. You would most definitely be considered a pirate.

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Some people do not live in the US.

[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world -1 points 1 month ago

Surprise, DMCA exists in one form or another depending on what county you are from. Thanks to WIPO around 200 countries have similar laws.

https://www.wipo.int/en/web/about-wipo/member-states

Is your country on this list?

[–] tko@tkohhh.social 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I guess that depends on your definition of "piracy"... is it "breaking the law" or is it "stealing"?

In any case, the point I was making is that some people use Plex with non-stolen media. I mostly see assumptions that it's only used for stolen media, so I wanted to offer a counter-example.

[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Piracy is infringing on copyright. Ripping DVDs is most definitely consider a form of piracy. Although without sharing it, I think a jury could see it as non-infringing personally.

I do agree there is a huge difference between ripping media and downloading/sharing it as far as civil liability goes.

I take some umbrage with calling either ripping or downloading stealing though as it does not deprive the owner of their property. The correct term would be commercial copyright infringement.

[–] Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world -1 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Technically recording TV on VHS is piracy, but in practice no one is getting sued for it.

[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

To this point Congress was ready to eliminate the VHS home taping technology. Believe it or not Mr. Rogers came in to save the VHS from regulation death because he believed parents could record shows to watch with their children.

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/29686/how-mister-rogers-saved-vcr

Notable quotes

"The VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone." - Jack Velanti

"I have always felt that with the advent of all of this new technology that allows people to tape the 'Neighborhood' off-the-air ... they then become much more active in the programming of their family’s television life. Very frankly, I am opposed to people being programmed by others. My whole approach in broadcasting has always been ‘You are an important person just the way you are. You can make healthy decisions’ ... I just feel that anything that allows a person to be more active in the control of his or her life, in a healthy way, is important." - Mr. Rogers

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago
[–] ScoopMcPoops@lemmy.world -3 points 1 month ago

If by "your definition of piracy" you mean your country's laws surrounding it, then in the USA you would still be breaking the law. The FBI anti-piracy warning that they put at the beginning of movies to warning you about the anti-piracy laws specifies that the unauthorized reproduction OR distribution of copyrighted works is illegal.