Overview: A novel platform structure for digital media and intellectual property distribution. The objective is to monetarily reward creators while simultaneously increasing access to data by disintermediating the relationship between creators and consumers using peer to peer technology.

Crowdfunding: Creators set funding targets for specific intellectual property to be unlocked to the public. Funding targets can be set at any amount and in any currency, but will be received, held, and paid out in bitcoin. After the funding target is reached, content is licensed under creative commons or released to open source.

Contributions to each item will be ranked by size on the listing page with the option to remain anonymous. Rankings can be shared by those who wish to associate their identity with the contribution for public recognition. Contributors may continue to tip creators after unlocking. Tips will also be ranked by size on each listing.

99% of the crowdfunding goes directly to creators upon unlocking.

1% goes towards operations.

Hosting: Hosted data will be available in multiple formats. High fidelity files to maintain quality over time, and compressed formats for those with lower bandwith and/or storage capacity.

BitTorrent will be used to host and distribute files. EarthBerry will be a torrent tracker and website host which organizes crowdfunding and provides user support.

Operations: When a creator wants to submit data for unlocking, they will fill out a form describing the content, including proof of ownership, contact information, a bitcoin address, unlocking value, and signatures for any necessary legal release.

EarthBerry confirms the authenticity of bitcoin addresses, signatures, and/or the copyright information. EarthBerry needs to verify the data is properly uploaded and protects the data until it is unlocked.

The creator’s bitcoin address (per posting) will show the accrual for the unlocking amount. If the amount is denominated in fiat it can unlock as time passes without further funding. Creators may unlock the content at any time to receive their payout, but may not increase the unlocking requirement after funding has begun.

User tracking and ads will not be allowed on the site.

Notes:

I made a rough draft of this concept in 2014 because I was tired of seeing users and creators alike being screwed by walled gardens. Since that time the screwing has gotten worse and many tools have been created that could support this concept. The goal is to give power and compensation back to creators while increasing data access to the entire globe without limitations.

There is trust involved in this model as contributors would need to trust the creator they are funding to release quality content. Creators are free to market in whatever way they see fit, but if they do something that upsets contributors, their trust may not recover. The requirement for trust in EarthBerry will be minimized to every degree possible.

Bitorrent is a robust technology, but has largely been relegated to piracy; however, it could just as easily be used to globally protect data against loss or censorship and confirm data legitimacy through network consensus.

There are applications today like Stremio and Kodi that enable the streaming of torrents in a manner which resembles Netflix. Similar applications could be built to replace Spotify and Audible as well. In my estimation this will happen eventually whether it is a result of content leaving copyright or through piracy.

Offering to reward copyright holders for non-productive assets might expedite the process of uploading all the music, movies, books, magazines, comic books, research articles, software, videogames, ect. that humanity has created thus far. In my opinion this data should be preserved and accessible.

If LLMs are continually trained on web data the percentage of data created by LLMs may increase the rate of hallucination beyond functionality. As a result cerified pre-LLM content may become more valuable.

While much of the data mentioned previously might be worthless on the open market, I would like to see price discovery happen publicly and for content creators / copyright holders to be compensated rather than robbed.

The torrent tracker will see the number of seeds and peers for any given file which can provide statistics about popularity, but not users (if they choose to use a VPN). Each item would have a reference ID which simplifies the process of providing references and credit to creators.

If I could figure out a way to decentralize the tracker and site host I would do that as well, but I think this model requires an oracle and a support team, hence the 1% management fee.

Similar to private trackers today, the site will need a dynamic incentive program for seeding torrents. Hosting torrents is a lesser form of PoW, which could substitute for personal connections and zaps in a WoT score. The costs associated with hosting are increasingly insignificant these days, at least for music and books. Larger files that don’t manage to maintain a single seed might be marked as dead, which represents a natural free market dynamic. They could feasibly be resurrected if someone still has the file stored. Bounties can be created for cases like this.

I am posting this on nostr because I would like for it to exist. If enough time (and NGU) passes I may create it myself, but if someone else thinks it’s a good idea; please be my guest. Open source everything.

EarthBerry is a play on words for “library of earth”, but also a literal translation from the German word Erdbeere.

Thanks for reading 🤙