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The internet, as a network of peers, is basically illegal.


That’s not what this article is about, though. He’s not arguing that you cannot host your own content. He’s arguing that you shouldn’t sell your excess capacity to randoms on the internet for reasons enumerated in tfa.


What are you a peer of if not the content of others? Hosting your own content is a client-server model.


Not sure what you mean here. In the “traditional” internet peer to peer model from the early days, it was always a client-server model. Just that everyone “ran their own server”. For example: You want to send me email? Great my smtp server is sitting at my desk and the mail spool lives on my local hard drive.

That’s in contrast to the centralized model where all the servers live in a set of giant concrete boxes aka data centers run by hyperscalers.


Does your comment above belong on my server your server or HN server? The traditional internet is based on telnet into servers (at say a university) it is fundamentally not peer to peer. The peers in the traditional internet would be mainframes to mainframes. Im sure they stored replicated content.


IMO, this is a side effect from centralization under the name of security/convenience. We deserve the Internet we have today because the majority of folks don't want to learn and prefer digital nanny states and walled gardens.


You lost me at 'We deserve'. My enemies have not defeated me enough that I think I should deserve to be oppressed.




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