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Plex Cloud and Stablebit


steffenmand

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Have you guys thought about talking with Plex about a partnership? You got some proprietary software which could really improve it for their service and I'm almost certain that the new Plex Cloud is gonna cost subscription money even for Plex Pass holders, so I smell a really good potential revenue share model you could achieve here...

 

More money for both sides :-)

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Well, the Plex Cloud is a direct cloud storage and play solution where they are getting people to upload their content to amazon through the amazon app. so only different part from current stablebit clouddrive would be an option to read data for usage with their media server player back on their servers, instead of playback from the drive.

So pretty much just an option in plex to type in the encryption key and then integration with clouddrive and plex to read to their media server.

 

that way people will have a local cloud drive and also get their stuff playable directly in plex :-)

 

They also lack the encryption and speed improvements with chunks. which you have set up a good path with already

 

Could give you lots of customers :)

 

By partnering early, you could get some good stuff going, where if not, Plex could themselves move towards a similar solution, making stablebit cloud drive obsolete for that group of users! Wouldn't it be nicer to have a good potential client base ? :) - I know they know of you, and often a good partnership just takes the one part to begin the communication :) I know this from my own company also!

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is plex trancoding (well amazon) in the cloud then streaming to a device? or is it downloading to the plex server being transcoded and then sent to the device

 

from what i have read not clear to me - but i can only see the marketing bumf  

 they are transcoding in the cloud and streaming to you. They are eliminating the need for a local plex server

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Specifically, it sounds like it's essentially running a Docker instance of Plex, using Amazon (AWS, and not Cloud Drive) as the storage backend. 

 

So, if that's the case, then no, this wouldn't really work with StableBit CloudDrive. You'd need a Windows VM, more than likely. And that gets rather expensive. 

 

 

As for integrating with Plex directly (which is what I'm guessing what you're getting at), it would take a massive rewrite of our code, and may not even work properly. 

 

 

 

The thing is, I'm just not really sure how this would work, at least not without getting rather expensive.

 

"Plex Cloud" works because (most likely) of the Docker support it already has, and being hosted in Amazon. 

 

 

 

However, I've already seeing a LOT of rumbling about this partnership, and that there may be a lot of caveats.

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However, I've already seeing a LOT of rumbling about this partnership, and that there may be a lot of caveats.

 

Actually I was thinking of trying this. Not sure what caveats you are referring to but I was thinking of potential problems with copyrights. If I upload stuff to amazon without encryption, even if I am only streaming to myself, who knows if Amazon is going through my media library to check for illegal content? 

 

So unless Plex uses some sort of encryption by uploading through them, I am not sure, this is such a great idea. But cant you do this with your notebook and Cloud Drive? Installing Plex on your notebook with a clouddrive connected would basically give you the same thing, no? At least if the internet is fast enough ....

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i have a suspicion that this might get messy very quickly

 

terms and conditions say don't "share with others" etc as if thats going to stop people doing exactly that - as thats part of the point of Plex and other media servers

 

so Plex and Amazon have in effect made it easier/better to stream media to multiple users who might not - shock horror - own the copyrighted media :)

 

I suspect a few copyright lawyers may have a problem or two with the concept even if Plex and Amazon have done their homework

 

As for encryption of the data stored on Amazon - well plex needs to able to read it to stream/transcode/update metadata etc so at some point you are going to have to give it the key

 

Might be fun to watch bit like Google/Oracle

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I'm sure at some point there might be some kind of a "crack down" because there will be users who will abuse the service. Let's face it, if a would be Pirate wants to store and run copy protected material unencrypted... they are going to get caught. From what I've read Plex Cloud doesn't encrypt the content you upload via Plex to Amazon Cloud Drive which means Amazon has the ability to see what you have stored and examine it. If it contains embedded metadata suggesting that it was obtained illegally... your toast. If I were a rogue user I wouldn't use it.

 

Your files will always be encrypted in transit (uploaded to Amazon, and when sent to you via plex). However at rest they are not (i.e. when stored in the amazon cloud). This does mean amazon can look at what you have should they have a desire.

 

People talk about Amazon Cloud Drive / Plex Cloud as a private Netflix. I don't see it. Netflix has a shared video library where multiple users can view the same file. If every movie nut in the world has a private collection of 10TB or more... holy data Armageddon batman! Amazon has some amazing search algorithms they use to manage their data in various ways. With Amazon's TOS they have the ability to use those algorithms on your "private" movie libraries. Who's to say they aren't DE-duping to some extent and linking metadata among users accounts? It's a multi-tenant environment. Could easily be done. Plex's TOS allows for it too.

 

You continue to retain any ownership rights you have in content you make available via the Services, or otherwise use in conjunction with the Services. However, by using the Services with particular content, for example by using the Services to share particular content or access particular content, you grant to Plex (and to each of the third parties with whom we work to provide you with the Services) a worldwide license to reproduce, modify, create derivative works, transmit, publish, publicly perform, publicly display, distribute, and otherwise use the particular content and metadata associated with the content, such as images of you or images otherwise associated with your account. The rights you grant us in this license are only for the limited purpose of providing you with our Services. You may not use the Services in connection with any content for which you do not have the right to grant us this license.

 

I'm adding this topic to my daily news search because I think at some point there are going to be some really interesting stories that come out from this...

 

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I'm adding this topic to my daily news search because I think at some point there are going to be some really interesting stories that come out from this...

 

 

Reddit has already pretty much blown up over this (specifically /r/DataHoarder), and a lot of my concerns are echoed there. 

 

 

Also, to clarify: 

 

Amazon (Cloud) Drive absolutely indexes the content uploaded.  In fact, it also reads the header of each file, to identify the file type. 

 

This is why this provider is encrypted in StableBit CloudDrive by default, and includes a null character at the beginning of every file. 

 

However, are they analysing the actual content?  I don't know.  Dropbox does.  So it's possible that Amazon is doing so as well. 

 

 

That means, even if you ripped the content yourself... it may be flagged and removed (if Amazon is actually doing this).  

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Reddit has already pretty much blown up over this (specifically /r/DataHoarder), and a lot of my concerns are echoed there. 

 

 

Also, to clarify: 

 

Amazon (Cloud) Drive absolutely indexes the content uploaded.  In fact, it also reads the header of each file, to identify the file type. 

 

This is why this provider is encrypted in StableBit CloudDrive by default, and includes a null character at the beginning of every file. 

 

However, are they analysing the actual content?  I don't know.  Dropbox does.  So it's possible that Amazon is doing so as well. 

 

 

That means, even if you ripped the content yourself... it may be flagged and removed (if Amazon is actually doing this).  

 

They do analyze and will browse through your files.  It's actually in the TOS for ACD.  If they catch you having copyrighted material they can delete it, and other things.  You will also receive this nice email.

 

Dear customer,

 

It has come to our attention that your account has shared content that violates the Cloud Drive Terms of Use. As a result, the sharing feature on your account has been disabled. Please refer to the Terms of Use for more information: https://www.amazon.com/gp/drive/tou

 

If you feel this decision was made in error, you can appeal the decision by sending an email to clouddrive-content@amazon.com. We appreciate your cooperation. 

 

Sincerely,

Amazon Cloud Drive Customer Service

 

Plex and Amazon are partnering on this, but there is no encryption being done, and non being supported.  You are honestly better off to have a beast of a machine and a fat pipe and use rclone for linux, or stablebit for windows, as pretty much every other option for windows sucks.  I've tried them, and THIS is the only one that works properly.  I just can't wait for Amazon to get their shit together and give you proper access.  This 20mbit upload sucks when I got 30+TB to upload to my ACD for backup.

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One thing i'm not clear on is the whole copyright material thing - any movie or TV show etc is copyrighted - so any rip is technically an infringement - so how are Amazon going to know if you .... cough... borrowed a copy of X DVD from Fred down the road vs bought it from a shop.

 

Also if you are in different parts of the world different versions of the copyrights apply.

 

If you Stream content via Plex currently to say your parents house so they can watch the latest addition to you collection - i believe that's a violation of copyright - if you believe the FBI feel the love screen at the beginning of your latest Blu-Ray. No they a not going to chase you for this - but with the Amazon/Plex deal the info on who you streamed it to and when is readily available etc etc.

 

@Royce

 

"You continue to retain any ownership rights you have in content you make available via the Services, or otherwise use in conjunction with the Services. However, by using the Services with particular content, for example by using the Services to share particular content or access particular content, you grant to Plex (and to each of the third parties with whom we work to provide you with the Services) a worldwide license to reproduce, modify, create derivative works, transmit, publish, publicly perform, publicly display, distribute, and otherwise use the particular content and metadata associated with the content, such as images of you or images otherwise associated with your account. The rights you grant us in this license are only for the limited purpose of providing you with our Services. You may not use the Services in connection with any content for which you do not have the right to grant us this license."

 

I have seen this before or something very similar and some people blow this off as just standard boiler plate and it is to some extent - right up until a Judge says "nah its real". Did you find anything interesting in your search?

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@Spider99

That quote is directly from Plex's TOS... it's in there. I wouldn't be uploading any *cough* questionable home movies. You might find yourself online in all your embarrassing glory. :D

 

Also, to clarify: 
 
Amazon (Cloud) Drive absolutely indexes the content uploaded.  In fact, it also reads the header of each file, to identify the file type. 
 
This is why this provider is encrypted in StableBit CloudDrive by default, and includes a null character at the beginning of every file. 
 
However, are they analysing the actual content?  I don't know.  Dropbox does.  So it's possible that Amazon is doing so as well. 
  
That means, even if you ripped the content yourself... it may be flagged and removed (if Amazon is actually doing this).

 

Wait... wut? I mean I know they have the ability to go in and look at your files but I was under the impression that the "chunks" that are uploaded are encrypted. Is that not the case? I did setup encryption. This is all they will see... chunk files which are encrypted.

 

post-2630-0-47951400-1475099775_thumb.jpg

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Ah. I thought you were asking me if I found anything interesting in my search. Well, yeah that quote was interesting. Imagine if some marketing team at Amazon decided to search through everyone's Cloud Drive account to see what pictures are uploaded, music, movies what ever. They could index it all and build behavior profiles to make targeted marketing campaign ads. Imagine some user, like my grandmother, who doesn't know WTF encryption is thinks, "oh great, for 60 bucks a year I can store all my personal information here". *smacks head* I can imagine a lot of dreadful things people do unaware...

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