But if said ship is instead used for piracy? Well, that’s illegal, but it’s not the ship’s fault, is it? The ship does what the captain tells it to do. ![]() If the navy uses that ship, it’s working as intended - nice and legal. ![]() The ship itself is up to code and isn’t capable of breaking any laws on its own. Or, if you prefer a literal piracy analogy: Think of Plex as a wooden ship. Thus, when the powers of Plex are combined with your capacity for malfeasance, Plex can become an unwitting accomplice. You, however, are very capable of illegality, and you have sentience and agency. Plex itself is never illegal - if it were, it wouldn’t be a trusted partner with its content providers. So, fear not: even as you vegetate on the couch while watching free content, money is indeed exchanging hands. And it’s free to you because there are ads (though, you can opt for the premium version if you’d like extra features, and that’ll make it less free). So, where does all that server-side streaming content come from? The same place it always comes from: mutually profitable licensing agreements between the folks running the platform and the people selling the content. This part is 100 percent legal, so have at it. ![]() You’d be forgiven for wondering how Plex could be streaming content alongside competitors, and often for free. Having an extensive library of content was a desirable trait before we all had access to massive online media libraries. Some would even fill their external hard-drive coffers with extralegally obtained media if you can believe it. ![]() If you were a media nerd in the early 2000s, there’s a good chance you kept an external hard drive loaded up with music and video files, often ripped from DVDs and CDs you’d purchased. Plex essentially has two suites: its original functionality is to locally host your private media library, acting as a client-side server for all of your movies, music, and other multimedia. They almost serve as opposite sides of the same coin, with one focused on the content you own and the other bringing you content you don’t necessarily own for free. When it comes to Plex, you can think of it as a company with two primary services.
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