I am Plex Guy, my friend is Plex Guy, between the 2 of us we share our servers to over a dozen people. My mom and grandma use my server in another state, I don’t charge anyone access. In total I have 8 users on my server, my friend has probably the same on his, with both of us giving access to a different friend meaning he has access to double the amount of content.

I got absolutely fed up with subscription services raising prices and removing content (I only ever had Hulu and Netflix) so I just built my own service. My only subscription now is a Tidal family plan for myself, my wife and my mom.

Also it’s interesting how between these 2 servers, they’re built differently. I built mine using TrueNAS and housed it in a dedicated PC case large enough for all the drives, my buddy made his as a Windows server, and has everything wall mounted with custom 3D printed brackets.

Also, when I go to Brazil for vacation, my content isn’t region locked, it’s at home in a box on my living room that I just access with no VPN or any bullshit needed.

I can’t say how many people are trying to make money on it, but there are plenty of folks running Plex or Jellyfin servers that they’ll allow friends and family to access. And I would estimate that a fairly low percentage of those have no pirated content on them. So even for the small-group servers, discussions of piracy are often relevant.

I do run a Jellyfin server, but only locally on my own network.

In a lot of countries, you could legally share copyrighted content to your “private and relative” circle. So it’s not actually illegal. Your theory seems correct, even if we do have ftp-siblings too

Depends what industry you’re in, I guess

I’m in tech and there are more Plex guys than people looking for Plex guys

I’m a jellyfin guy. I share with roughly 6 friends just for fun.

I’m a Plex guy. I share my library because it’s a bit of fun and scratches my IT interest itch. I actually run Plex and Jellyfin in parallel but pretty much everyone prefers the Plex interface (and most smart TVs have it ready to go, even the silly ones with off brand app stores).

Mostly it’s just an excuse to play with cool toys, and a reason to work out how to run things I wouldn’t otherwise bother with.

I’ve always downloaded stuff, since the dialup days. Originally it was for things that were region locked / “unrated” in Australia and thus not available… but now it’s just so much more convenient than paid options that it’s a no-brainer. Like I literally can’t pay any legit service for the level of access and convenience I have now.

It’s not even about money anymore. Between the purchase price and power consumption of my dual Xeon rack server and JBOD, the 1000/400Mbps fibre connection, and the time I spend on it I’m paying enough to cover half a dozen subscriptions or so with change… But the convenience! I can watch anything, anywhere, on any device. No jumping between services to find stuff, no episodes/movies going missing, no login restrictions, no player that won’t work because your HDMI cable is lacking a decimal place or whatever the hell they’re doing now.

Anytime someone we know in real life complains about having issues with their legitimate streaming service I offer access to Plex. I think there’s 40ish users, but only a dozen or so that use it with any real frequency. Maybe 4-5 concurrent streams at peak times, outside of that is usually occasionally the work from home “workers” / the night shift people, or me streaming music at work or similar. I think the most I’ve had is 7 or 8 at once.

I have a Plex guy. He runs a server and invites anyone he considers a friend, but also gives access to most who ask. He has a giant rig that costs him a lot in electricity bills. But he doesn’t mind and doesn’t want any money, because he’s a sweet person and it’s just something he does.

Edit: I’m in Europe; also he always honors requests.

I am a Jellyfin server guy, and I Iet family and friends use it for free. I also am not shy about telling people that I do this, as I don’t see any moral issue with it and will happily defend piracy as not only completely fine, but a net moral good. I see it as a tiny bit of anarchist calisthenics.

I have a Plex server guy. He is one of my oldest and best friends although we don’t get to hang out much anymore. I know he has other friends he shares the Plex server with but I have no idea who or how many. I’ve been using it since Plex was new, not sure how long exactly but more than a decade. I occasionally buy him nice hard drives because the library is ridiculously huge and always growing. As someone who loves weird and obscure shit, it’s my favorite streaming service by far and he’s my hero for running it.

I would probably be this guy if I ever got around to doing the research into how to make my Jellyfin available over the internet safely.

Me and a relative jointly host and manage a server. Over the years we’ve slowly allowed in a handful of trusted friends and family. By now we probably have 20ish connected. Most use it as a supplement to their main streaming services, primarily used for exclusive content like the star wars shows. Some, like those of us hosting, have cancelled every streaming service and use it exclusively.

I’m a plex guy and I know a bunch of other plex guys. There is dozens of us!

I run an Emby server, but just for family. Two of my kids use it, one doesn’t. I posted previously that my daughter doesn’t have anything that can play a DVD, but she still gets them and I add them to my server so she can watch them.

I added my parents to it, and they watched some stuff, but they can’t remember how to use it. Every time I show them, my dad will watch things for a few days, then he forgets how.

I appear to be unique among the people running streaming servers in that I only add things if I own the DVD (or if they’re in the public domain). I also only have about 1300 movies.

I visit thrift stores to get cheap DVDs. There’s one near me that charges $1/DVD, but they have a 50% off sale on the last weekend of every month.

I’m trying to be more particular about what I add. I had started thinking that for 50¢, I can buy a shittier movie, but now I’m only getting the movie if I know it’s worth it, or if it’s got > 7 IMDB rating.

Today’s haul included True Grit (the remake), Capote, and Ready Player One.

Yes, there’s even a subreddit dedicated to people advertising their Plex servers. Lots of them are paid, it’s wild.

I’ve ditched all streaming services in favour of a friend’s 40tb Plex server, running from the server room of the university where he works. It’s rock solid and has everything I want to watch.

Anything he can’t find, or that I personally want my own access to goes in my own Jellyfin server.

It’s great. Better than spending £50 a month on a couple of services.