Comment Re:Let's re-write that headline, shall we? (Score 1) 20
*ensure*
*ensure*
Now that most people have a fast internet connection
In the case of BitTorrent, even the fastest Internet connection won't get you a lot of successful peer connections if your ISP blocks all inbound TCP connections.
If youtube goes away, streaming video won't disappear, some new ecosystem will grow in its place.
Such a new ecosystem already has grown, as I understand it. It's called getting Netflix, HBO Max, Paramount+, Disney+/Hulu, Peacock, Prime Video, or Apple TV to accept your pitch and fund it. These take the place of cable television channels in the pre-broadband economy. And there are still a lot more pilot screenplays than budget to produce all of them.
2. Talk to real people. Touch grass. Etc.
With the decline of third places, particularly since the pandemic and as online shopping has taken over the functions of malls, how do people usually meet people in 2026?
Yes, I am proposing the internet be used as designed.
If only I could get my home ISP to add IPv6...
1. The same way 99% of content producers do it today. Less than one percent of youtube content is monetized in any meaningful way.
Would it benefit the public to completely do away with the other 1%? How could something like The Amazing Digital Circus have been produced purely on a hobby budget?
2. Word of mouth. Curated lists.
How does the producer of a video go about seeding "word of mouth" and getting onto "curated lists"?
3. The protocol already handles this.
Yes, by excluding a lot of viewers who lack an IP address that can accept inbound TCP connections, unless I'm missing something. It also excludes viewers who have an iPhone or iPad and don't have a Mac with which to build and ad-hoc sign an app because Apple has reportedly banned BitTorrent clients from the App Store.
The same way it all worked before youtube.
And how might that have been? I might be misremembering, but this was my recollection:
1. Movie studios and TV channels funded production of videos to be viewed by the public. Very few pitches got funded.
2. Movie studios promoted upcoming and newly released movies through television advertising, and TV channels promoted shows to the channel's own viewers.
3. Movies were paywalled, and TV was ad-supported (in the case of broadcast) or behind the combination of ads and a paywall (in the case of cable).
Also, before YouTube, most end-user devices on the Internet had an IP address, even if dynamic, which could accept incoming connections. Nowadays, a lot of Internet subscribers' devices are behind network address translation (NAT), and if you share your IP address with the whole neighborhood, the ISP is unlikely to forward a port to your device.
Under your proposal:
1. How would the producer of a video cover the cost of producing the video before it even reaches BitTorrent?
2. How would a viewer learn of a video that they are likely to enjoy?
3. How would the system work around users who "leech", or view the video without contributing to its decentralized hosting?
You know, there are these things called yard sales and flea markets where you can get forks, or entire sets, for less than what you pay on Amazon.
Instead of an itemized list of what you bought and how much each item cost, all you'll get is a final bill. Pay it or else.
Sound stupid? So is this.
Have you listened to the way people talk? I wouldn't want to listen to it either.
For large values of one, one equals two, for small values of two.