There are many crawlers, and I’m confident at least a couple have tried to connect to your server (unless you have an IP firewall, or if you’ve changed Plex Media Sever’s default port, in which case significantly less likely).
I assume it’s not really about them watching content, but to avoid them exploiting any possible PMS bugs.
You are now not hosting publicly available links
That’s also the case with open trackers (without indexers), yet I’ve gotten shut down way too many times. But that made me wonder, does this project share metadata if someone else in the DHT swarm queries for an info_hash you have, or does it simply “leech”? Pretty cool project regardless.
This gets rid of any questionably legal gray area of using sites like Nyaa, etc for Torrent links
Except that now you’re asking the swarm for metadata behind a boatload of info_hashes? Unlikely anyone would care (though you’d be surprised how many DMCAs I get when just having a simple open tracker running, not even an indexet), but I don’t see it as being any less grey than using any existing sites.
Does your university allow you to use VPNs? Do they have any acceptable use policy? It’s unlikely they’ll care if you download a few cars, but they’ll probably get mad if you’re just trying to maximize bandwidth used for fun and wonder why you’re using so much.
Without direct connection, PMS uses Plex Relays, which limit streams to like 320p.