Plex's crackdown on free remote streaming access starts this week

Since early this year I also install Jellyfin along with Plex Media Server that's already serving for more than 5 years

For anyone interested in alternatives:

Kodi/formerly xbmc is also a good self hosted media server. Been using it for the better part of a decade now. It's fully FOSS, with no weird subscription/lock-in shenanigans going on.

https://kodi.tv/about/

I saw this and was confused.

But it actually seems to be true. Plex is charging you (and anyone you wish to share your media library with) to access your own media library remotely.

Huh? That should be a death sentence for Plex, right?

I can (and do) share my media library with jellyfin and other streaming servers. No one has tried to charge me for doing so.

One of the reasons I didn't use Plex back in 2019 when I was setting up my self-hosted streaming solution was that it required a log in on Plex's servers to play my locally hosted media. Which I thought was a bridge too far.

Now they're trying charge for accessing your own content? WTF?

Edit: I was unaware that Plex also provides "external" (e.g., not your local library) streams as well as locally hosted ones. As such, there's other stuff provided by the "Plex Pass" as well. Not sure if this makes a difference for users, but it certainly doesn't change my mind. That said, I wasn't going to use Plex anyway.

I hope those who do aren't too inconvenienced by the new charges/subscription requirements to play their own media.