Cutting the Cord: How Decentralized Media Lets Us Truly Own Our Content Again

“Cutting the cord,” a common phrase used by consumers today: a reference to the ongoing trend of canceling cable subscriptions in favor of getting all your media via online streaming services. Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, HBO Now — these apps propose to free us from the umbilical cord of bloated cable channels, rigid release schedules, and ads. On-demand streaming solutions where you can watch what you want, when you want it, without interruption have become the content distribution standard for the connected world.

…But have the cords truly been cut? Or have we merely exchanged one set of rope for another?

Streaming services provide increased convenience and choice for consumers, allowing us to choose what we want to watch and when. With each passing day, the libraries of content within these networks grows exponentially, rapidly eclipsing the quantity of premium content found on traditional cable. Who wouldn’t want to make the switch? From a certain point of view, it just makes sense.

But who really owns what you watch? In the digital age, that answer gets murky. One thing is for sure: you don’t. When you pay for your Netflix subscription, or “buy” a movie on iTunes — you don’t own any of that content. You’re just buying the right to “access” it, and the terms of that access are fully controlled by the companies distributing it to you. You don’t own that content, you don’t own the files, you don’t even really own your access to them. You’re paying for limited rights that keep you bound to these centralized authorities in perpetuity.

In the long term, this model isn’t consumer-positive. It’s certainly not content-positive. We have given ownership of our content up to companies that have little incentive to preserve it for us. What happens when you stop paying? What happens when a platform’s content licenses lapse? What happens when they deem a piece of content unworthy of supporting any longer? What happens when their networks go down? The content you watch — content you may have paid for — is gone, and you have no legal or financial recourse to get it back. It will happen. It has happened. It happens all the time.

So why do we continue to use these services? How did this become the norm? For one, the slow death of physical media has been a huge factor — with some highly visible causes: ease of access, higher production costs, lack of convenient storage options, rampant consumer piracy, cyclical introduction of new hardware formats & obsolescence. It makes sense that consumers would opt for the convenience of seamless online media over cumbersome physical goods, and it makes even more sense that private companies would emphasize streaming channels that reduce their distribution costs and provide greater control over piracy.

In this transition, however, media as personal property has been almost completely lost. Where we once had an ecosystem that balanced centralized ownership (TV, movie theaters, cable) with personal ownership (VHS/DVD/Blu-Ray), we now have a system that overwhelmingly favors centralized ownership via digital services (Netflix, iTunes, etc). This should worry everyone.

We need a better system, one that gives us the convenience of digital distribution combined with the immutable personal guarantee of physical goods. The system must also account for the business incentives of media production and distribution companies, and must continue to support or improve upon the benefits they have gained through today’s digital media tools. It needs to work for everybody, or it won’t work at all.

Here’s the good news: Decentralized technology will save us all.

OK, that’s hyperbole, but at the risk of abusing a buzzword: let’s talk about Blockchain. Imagine a world where consumers can own every movie, every song, every game they purchase — all as digital assets, all conveniently accessible, easy to store & manage, and free from the control of any single platform authority. Imagine that those files are distributed peer-to-peer in a trusted decentralized network where no one has to rely on a monolithic central host for access to their content. Imagine that purchasing a digital good has the same benefits as purchasing something physical: you take it home, it belongs to you, and no one has the right to change it or take it from you against your will. Combine that with the convenience and global access of networked content, and suddenly consumers are getting the best of both worlds. Content that you own in full: play it when you want, on whatever device you want, for as long as you want, forever.

This might sound familiar already. In fact, it sounds a whole lot like a BitTorrent network. And what is BitTorrent most well-known for? Piracy.

The reality is that peer-to-peer file sharing has existed for decades. It’s a concept as old as the web itself. There’s nothing inherently novel about at this point, so what’s different? The difference is the immutable ledger. In a blockchain network, contracts are stamped on the blockchain and validated across network peers in a fully decentralized fashion. The record of these contracts, the ledger, belongs to both no one and everyone. There is no central authority or administrator that can change the history of the ledger. If a peer attempts to alter the ledger, that change must be validated by the other peers on the network. This prevents foul play, inconsistent records, and errors from entering the system — all safeguards that once formerly required a central authority. In a blockchain network, the lack of a central authority creates a universal record that acts as a reliable single-source-of-truth.

This has two major benefits: the immutable ledger removes the need to trust a central authority, while simultaneously making piracy & foul play near-impossible. Since no one person or organization owns the record, there is no one authority to exploit or be exploited by. For content consumers, this means that they can purchase content from a marketplace without needing to rely on that marketplace for ongoing support of their files. For content owners, an immutable ledger means they have access to a loss-less record of every transaction, license, and file moved among their consumers.

It works like this:

A content owner publishes their latest piece of content into the network. A record of that content, along with a contract determining ownership rights, price, etc. is then stamped on the blockchain. A record of this is validated and copied by peers on the network as part of the ongoing decentralized ledger. This content is now ready for distribution to consumers.

A consumer now discovers this piece of content on the network, likely through a marketplace that surfaces such content. They decide to purchase it, going through a standard digital e-commerce flow not unlike what most people are used to today. A record of this transaction is stamped on the blockchain and validated by peers on the network. The ledger now contains a record that this consumer has purchased the rights to this piece of content. Since the ledger is immutable and decentralized, there can be no later debate on whether or not the user owns this content. The system legitimizes the transaction free of any central processing authority. The consumer is now free to access their content file, downloading it from peers on the network.

What then happens if the consumer makes an illegal copy of that file and gives it to someone who lacks the rights to access it? In this case, a new kind of “DRM” could hypothetically be created — a Decentralized Rights Management technology. The file could be made to check the ledger before being accessed, locking out users who try to open it without a validated license. Rights management systems like this already exist today, but all rely on centralized databases that are easily exploited and leave consumers at the mercy of those who own the database. In a blockchain system, license validation happens across the entire network. Users with legitimate licenses can always access their content free of the whims of a central authority.

This is good for everyone. Peer-to-peer networks are inherently cheaper to maintain. Content owners and marketplaces can drastically reduce costs by no longer needing to maintain central databases, and consumers can purchase content with the confidence that no one has the authority to take it away. The reduction of operating costs combined with a boost in consumer confidence leads to more rapid growth in any marketplace ecosystem. Everyone wins.

The best part? This is just the shallow end of the pool. Blockchain technology enables a whole suite of digital-distribution opportunities: digital re-sale in secondary markets, token rewards systems for users who support the network, limited editions through digital scarcity, and so much more. Some of this is being built here at Littlstar as part of ARA (file management, publishing, hosting rewards, limited edition IDs, etc.), and other parts will surely come from the community with time (DRM — for example — is a complex solution that will likely come from the work of many organizations). It’s going to take a lot of companies working together, but we’re rapidly moving towards a world where the best elements of digital and physical goods combine.

Content belongs to everyone, and it’s time we took it back. Together.