A couple of software executives who had recently sold their company PostX to Cisco - Scott Olechowski and Cayce Ullman - got involved. In his words, he needed “something to keep busy.” It so happened he’d also recently gotten into a “heated argument” with a friend about programming languages, and so he decided to try to port the Xbox Media Center to a Mac.
#Plex streaming free#
It started as a freeware hobby project in 2007 when developer Elan Feingold had a free weekend while his wife was out of town. A spokesperson provided a statement that read, in part, “Plex supports content creators and does not condone piracy,” before directing me to its terms of service page.įor what it’s worth, the company is legitimate. The company, of course, doesn’t condone this particular use of its software. And this is the main tension of using Plex: while the software itself is explicitly legal, the media that populates its customer-run servers is not - at least the stuff protected by copyright law. Because what’s on Plex servers is populated by people, most of the commercial content you’d find there is probably pirated. What Plex doesn’t say, however, is how that bliss is achieved. In the company’s words, both pieces of its software are “the key to personal media bliss.” Except, all of the content is custom, tailored by the person running the server. It has two components: the piece of software that organizes media on your computer’s hard drive and the client-side program that lets you and your friends and family stream that content from wherever you are on just about any device. Plex, a company that sells media server software, has found itself in the strange position of being the answer to that problem. All of them have the same aim, which is to lock up intellectual property to keep people streaming. Different still are the network-specific streamers, like the up-and-comers HBO Max and Disney+, and the more niche offerings, like Shudder, Kanopy, Mubi, and Criterion. Having too many choices is exhausting.īecause of the convoluted nature of licensing agreements and the vagaries of corporate competition, what’s on Netflix is substantively different than what’s available on Hulu or Amazon Prime. Besides, if you subscribe to more than, say, two services, it’s overwhelming to cycle through their various offerings to find something you want to watch. Even so, streaming all that stuff looks a little different in practice, namely because signing up for a bunch of services can get expensive - fast.
There’s more streamable content now than ever and even more ways to consume it these days, we’re drowning in choices. (In other words, depending on how much piracy you plan to do.) I’m talking, of course, about Plex. The only problem - and, I mean, come on, it’s barely a problem - is that it might be illegal, depending on how you use it. Have you heard about the best new streaming platform on the internet? It’s totally customizable, works on any device, and, best of all, is basically free.
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