Amikke @Amikke@qoto.org

Say, what do you think about taking the entire media publishing/distribution industry hostage? The idea has been floating in my mind for a little while, inspired by how goddamn awful Spotify’s client apps are, and it requires two things:

1. A distributed file sharing network, such as IPFS
2. A universal permission/ownership authority, such as a blockchain. (LBRY immediately comes to mind, however I don’t know it well enough to judge if it’s fit for the purpose)

Basically it would work like this: a creator uploads their works to #1. If the works are free/public, that’s it, everyone can pull and share them, that’s already possible with a couple of networks. If they are not, the creator would create some kind of proof of ownership using #2 and distribute it however they see fit.

#1 would have to have an integrated permission system, such that a node would only share content requiring permissions to those who have been granted the permission using #2. Of course, this is susceptible to bad actors who would then take that content and share it freely, but that’s a problem with all such systems - that’s why piracy works.

So, using this system any willing creators would share their works, both free and paid, pretty basic. But we’d also have a “fair play pirate” authority which would be optional to honour (just like any other) and would freely share all works whose IP holders didn’t care. As in “if you don’t want to profit off our platform, then you won’t”.

This would present an ultimatum: either you share your stuff on the platform or we’ll share it for you. Normally that would be extortion, but not if the platform doesn’t take a cut¹ and only does it to re-integrate all of the proprietary content spread over shit like Spotify, Youtube, Netflix into a single, modular network that can be used by any client application.

You could still have things like a subscription-based permission to view files or anything like that, meaning the big players would be out of arguments defending them keeping to their walled gardens. Of course they’d still whine about piracy, but that wouldn’t be well received by the public given they have a fair way to stop it and no legitimate reason not to.

The exact technology stack alongside a fair permission authority system would need to be created, and we’d need an initial critical mass of users to make the network relevant - but once it gets going it would be virtually unstoppable and would bring about a new era of transparency and interoperability.