Plex will block servers hosted via provider Hetzner from October 12

Media server platform Plex announces that servers hosted via the cloud provider Hetzner will be blocked from October 12. According to the company, this service hosts a large number of servers that violate the terms of use.

Plex says in one email to customers that servers associated with a particular hosting provider will be blocked from the relevant date, but does not mention Hetzner by name. According to various users on Reddit In contrast, only customers with servers hosted at Hetzner received the email. The company recommends that customers host media servers elsewhere, for example with another provider or on a home server.

According to Plex, users who use the hosting provider are massively violating the media server platform’s terms of use, but the company does not say exactly what conditions these are. In all likelihood it concerns copyright infringement; users can grant or sell access to media servers to others relatively easily if the content is hosted through a provider like Hetzner. Several users claim, among other things on the Plex forum that they only host legitimate media on Hetzner servers and that a blanket ban of the cloud provider in question makes no sense. Many users expect Plex to block more hosting providers in the near future to prevent illegal sharing of content.