I was just forwarded this someone in my household who watches our server. That's it folks. I've been a hold out for a long time, but this is honestly it.
They want me to pay to stream content that I bought from my hardware transcoded also on my hardware.
I'll say it. As of today, I say Plex is dead. Luckily I've been setting up Jellyfin, I guess it's time to make it production ready.
Edit I have a Plex Pass. More comments saying "Just buy a plex pass" are seriously not getting it. I have a Plex Pass and my users are still getting this.
the people giving their bandwidth away for free now want money to pay their bills?
To clarify, I disagree with needing an account (sharing my email) with Plex in the first place, and personally would not purchase what is essentially a CDN or VPN depending on how plex distributes your content to your end users. However, from these comments it seems like this was a free service they offered and now want money for it, because it is not profitable. Enshittification? Sure, but not unexpected. Apparently this doesn’t affect you if you stream locally either.
This does complicate things though since now users have to consider paying a subscription for network security or begin distributing OpenVPN configurations to people. In some cases it won’t be possible, like on your TV.
I’ll share my secret: configure your VPN so only select traffic is sent down it and if you’re on iOS, AirPlay it to the television if it supports it. Or you can connect a raspberry pi up to it.
That's essentially my point of view. Plex enshittified. I was angry at how they handled the enshittification, throwing my users into a flurry, but I'm also not surprised that they're doing it.