Selfhosted

Webrips. That’s how we get movies and shows today without waiting for physical media being released

Yeah, piracy is the last bastion of privately controlled media files

Doesn't seem like it's going away though

That is the smallest scale of self hosting. The server and the client are the same device. It is also the most insecure way as you probably don't have any backups and very limited storage space.

Actually self hosting is the next step when you decide you want 5+ TB of data and have it automatically create backups. Digital storage media degrade pretty quickly and if you just have your movies on a hard drive in your computer, after 5-10 years you might start to lose quality or some files completely.

You do have the file on a device... On a server, and you can play it on any client you like

Self-hosting allows you to have all your files on all your devices, like many have used to with the streaming services. Also, some smart TVs specifically require to connect to some server to grab movies from.

If you don't need any of that, regular hard drive will suit you best.

For me, it's a matter of restoring the convenience and UX that you've given up by leaving the big providers.

The expenses are mostly upfront though. I've spent like $400 on a relatively fancy NAS and two 3TB WD Red CMR drives five years ago, and since then, there was that.

Of course, depending on your use case, there could be extra expenses as well, some of them recurring: -Bigger drives -Backup storage (I already had a place I could back up to) -Domain name and DNS records (if you expose it to the public Web with a URL; you can otherwise just use a VPN tunnel to access NAS from outside the home network, which is free unless you do anything fancy) -Some kind of paid software (if you don't enjoy the perfectly good collection of open-source apps) -Etc.

Now, for the streaming alternative: Netflix Standard: $18/mo Spotify: $12/mo Total: $30/mo, or $360/yr. Just these two services alone.

Your NAS system will pay off in a little over a year (maybe two years if you go all in with huge drives, fancy NAS configs, extra expenses here and there), and it's smooth sailing from there.

My unit works for 5 years already with no maintenance, is still fully supported by the manufacturer, and I don't expect to replace it in a few more years.

Alternatively, your setup is kinda slow and you're kinda lazy (not used pejoratively).

Imagine not having a double digit bay NAS with triple digit number of Tebibytes.

Rookie.

Do you know what ORACLE stands for?

+1 for PBS streaming. It's a great value and highly underrated.

Self-hosting is saving to a hard drive. The difference is how it's accessed. If you save it to a (presumably portable?) hard drive, you can only access it from the hard drive. "Self-hosting" allows it to be stored on a hard drive, inside a server, which is then accessible from anywhere, on any device, at any time.

that's self-hosted.

Self hosting essentially stores all of your data on your hard drive, but it also allows access to that via local network (while at home) and over internet via secured tunnel (e.g. Wireguard tunnel, Tailscale) while away from home.

You're going to "own" digital content through...federation? How does that work?

In what way? You don't own anything on the fediverse. The people who run the various instances do.

Maybe they even have a TOS that says you own it, but then what? its still up to them to continue to host it, and they have no contract with you.

Unless you are self hosting your own instance, and only count what is on that, you own no more than with larger social media sites.

To be clear, I think that federations certainly are better than monolithic sources for a variety of reasons for real people, but they aren't a solution for ownership.

disagree. legally a government can forcefully take down a community but it's far more difficult to police a physical ring of pirates.

pirating in the late 90s early 2000s was mostly done through physical interaction. you could download content from places like Napster, limewire, etc, but the volume of which content spread the fastest was at LAN parties.

I filled up a brand new 250gb drive after one LAN party in 2002. I still have all that content 23 years later.

point is, if we could harness the power of a "trust" content sharing would run rampant.