Why saving is smarter than streaming

by Jay on December 10, 2009

: Image by Magitisa via Flickr

Noted copyfighter and science fiction author Cory Doctorow threw yet another Molotov cocktail on the music/movie industry’s latest idea on how to combat filesharing: Promoting media streaming. The basic idea is that people will stop downloading music if you give them an easy way to just stream it over the Web. It’s the “Hulu will kill bittorrent” philosophy. And it’s wrong. (Seriously. Has Hulu killed bittorrent?) Doctorow gives many reasons why the idea is dumb, but here’s the best one:

[Ubiquitous] streaming requires that wireless companies be at the centre of our daily cultural lives. These are the same wireless companies that presently screw us in every conceivable way: charging a premium for dialling an 0870 number; having limits on “unlimited” data plans; charging extra for “long distance” text messages. They’re the same wireless companies whose hold-queues, deceptive multi-year contracts, surprise bills, and flaky network coverage have caused more bad days than any other modern industry.

Why would we voluntarily increase our reliance on expensive, scarce wireless bandwidth delivered by abusive thugs when we are awash in cheap, commodity storage that grows cheaper every day and which we can buy from hundreds of manufacturers and thousands of retailers?

The basic flaw in all cloud-based tech models is reliance on connectivity. Personally, I don’t trust my local quasi-monopoly broadband provider any farther than I can throw them, and I trust my wireless carrier even less. So before you dump everything to the cloud, be certain you’ve got a backup plan, because you don’t want your connection to come between you and your data — no matter how much Hollywood or Google would like it that way.