Plex to Shut Down Plex Cloud Service on November 30

I think they're afraid of getting in trouble for hosting pirated content. Terrarium TV is shutting down too.

Though we do frequently see that companies underestimate just how much people will store when you give them unlimited cloud storage. Crashplan just discontinued their consumer service (to focus on business services). This was because a small number of users (less than 5% from what friends who work there have said) stored numerous terabytes of backups. This made the consumer service financially unviable for them (when you factor in all the other costs like support, infrastructure, bandwidth, and more) when they were charging $99 or less per year for their service. There will always be those that push things and ruin them for the larger majority.

When even your own blu-ray rips are considered a DMCA violation I can't blame them.

Crashplan just discontinued their consumer service (to focus on business services). This was because a small number of users (less than 5% from what friends who work there have said) stored numerous terabytes of backups. This made the consumer service financially unviable for them (when you factor in all the other costs like support, infrastructure, bandwidth, and more) when they were charging $99 or less per year for their service. There will always be those that push things and ruin them for the larger majority.

At the risk of getting flamed, I had several terabytes of data backed up with Crashplan, but I didn't consider that as "pushing things"; they offered unlimited storage so I paid for the service and used it. I didn't exploit any loopholes or anything like that, it was all above board. It seems like if they couldn't maintain profitability with that policy then they should have charged more for additional storage, you know?

But Crashplan had other issues, too. They had that sluggish Java UI, and for years they kept promising a native Mac client without delivering. I've since moved to Backblaze and don't miss Crashplan at all.

Makes sense. Plex clearly knew what their users were going to use the storage for. It was silly of them to think they could get away with allowing users to host pirated content through Amazon cloud storage.

To be clear though, the term "pirated" is a loaded term. I don't consider movies I ripped from DVDs/BRs that I purchased as pirated, I consider them fair-use copies (regardless of what the MPAA thinks, and this topic has been discussed ad nauseam). However, movies in peoples' libraries that came from torrents or other file-sharing services (if they didn't own a copy on another medium) I consider truly pirated.

Problem is, there's almost no way to distinguish between the two, and Amazon and other cloud services know this and obviously err on the side of the movie industry with their large cadre of copyright lawyers. Yes, Plex should've known this would be an issue.

I think the subscription cost is what turned off most people. Too many of them nowadays.

That may be what you think, but the FBI thinks otherwise.

That FBI warning is such BS. While it is technically true that infringement without monetary gain could be criminally illegal, it's a crazy narrow standard. The most common criminal infringement by a huge margin is through monetary gain. I studied this while in law school for a journal article I was helping write: I could not find a single instance of a conviction based solely on 17 USC 506(a)(1)(B) or (C) - they were all based at least in part on (A) which requires financial gain. Granted I was only looking at searchable databases on LexisNexis, so it's possible there are guilty pleas or something I couldn't easily find. Nevertheless, the FBI's threat to investigate criminal infringement that doesn't involve financial gain is laughable.

Also, there are a few cases (some that post-date the MPAA) that have held it is fair use to make archival copies of CDs or DVDs for the purposes of having a backup in case the original is destroyed (e.g., making a copy of a disk and never using it until the original is destroyed). Notably, more convenient use is not fair use (e.g., using a rip on a NAS because loading disks is inconvenient).

At the end of the day, I think most people that make personal copies don't have to worry at all. The harm is so de minimis that nobody will ever care.

That may be what you think, but the FBI thinks otherwise.

Another loaded term: "unauthorized". The DMCA is contested over and over again on this point and with mixed results because "fair use", yet another loaded term, is so ambiguously defined. This is a matter for the courts, and so far only on a case-by-case basis, so the FBI and the MPAA are entitled to their interpretation, and so am I. My conscience is crystal clear on this matter.

Are you buying the right to watch a movie that happens to be on a particular medium, or are you buying a piece of media that happens to have a movie on it? I personally believe it's the former, and the studios show their hand by selling DVD/BR/DC multipacks, practically admitting that the medium is irrelevant to the rights. Problem is, DRM is a funky freakin' mess.

At the risk of getting flamed, I had several terabytes of data backed up with Crashplan, but I didn't consider that as "pushing things"; they offered unlimited storage so I paid for the service and used it. I didn't exploit any loopholes or anything like that, it was all above board. It seems like if they couldn't maintain profitability with that policy then they should have charged more for additional storage, you know?

But Crashplan had other issues, too. They had that sluggish Java UI, and for years they kept promising a native Mac client without delivering. I've since moved to Backblaze and don't miss Crashplan at all.

The best part about backblaze? They EMBRACE people with large amounts of data to store. Chances are, if you're backing up multiple TB of important data, you're a person who is in the position of recommending tech services to people. That's what apple always used to get about their pro customers, but I can say without any sort relationship with them other than as a customer, backblaze WANTS your business, and wants you to love their service. Even if that means leveraging their scale to provide services to you that are unfeasible from a cash perspective on the individual level. They don't cap uploads like Google, and genuinely give you as much bandwidth as they can at all times. I can tell with my Gig connection, they're solid.

Makes sense. Plex clearly knew what their users were going to use the storage for. It was silly of them to think they could get away with allowing users to host pirated content through Amazon cloud storage.

Filename and content obfuscation sounds like an obvious solution.

I'm happy about this. Plex Cloud was slow and virtually unusable in my testing. But having a personal Plex server at home is the best thing ever! It's much faster and more reliable than Plex Cloud. Glad that's what they're continuing to focus on.