I need to figure out how I can set up a self-hosted system to sell my documentary The Illusionists

[elena@aseachange.com]

I need to figure out how I can set up a self-hosted system to sell my documentary The Illusionists.

Sure, I could host it on PeerTube and add all kinds of foreign language subtitles there... but I need a solution to generate unique URLs for everyone who purchases a 48-hour streaming license... all this to avoid piracy of course.

Yes I know the Fediverse loves 🏴‍☠️​ but how can we independent filmmakers survive?

I've been using a mainstream platform to sell my film and they have just been bought by an infamous company, so I want to decamp ASAP.

I would love your suggestions.

And no, services that offer to sell digital products won't work because it's a 90 minute film that requires subtitles for many so the viewer needs to see it on an online platform that displays subtitles.

#AskFedi

[nicol@social.coop]

@elena A dozen years ago there was a lot of choices - VHX, Distrify, etc for managed, but embed-able on your site. Now there’s not much choice.

Never used them but Gumroad have subtitles https://gumroad.com/help/article/43-streaming-videos#adding-subtitles.

If you prefer to host your own then (not used in a very long time) JWPlayer has paywall plugins https://jwpconnatix.com/blog/video-paywall. For PeerTube there is a WebMonetization plugin but still needs a browser wallet, and not sure if still maintained.. https://github.com/samlich/peertube-plugin-web-monetization

[heinragas@mublog.nl]

@elena Is the sole reason you don't want to sell it as a digital file that you need to add the subtitles in many different languages?

Because there are video container formats that allow adding many different subtitles, and most video player software allows the user to select the subtitles they want to see. If you have the subtitles for all those different languages available, they could be added to the video.

Of course, selling digital files makes piracy more easy, so there's that.

[luca@sironi.xyz]

@elena

oh, I rented it last year !
Would be cool to have a federated VOD platform

[elena@aseachange.com]

@luca grazie Luca!!! And YES I would also love a federated VOD platform. In an ideal world PeerTube would build in some monetization feature...

[elena@aseachange.com]

@nicol ooooh thank you for the BRILLIANT suggestions Nicol!

Yes my doc was originally on VHX... then it was bought by Vimeo... and now Vimeo has been bought by Bending 🥄​ so I need to find an exit strategy ASAP.

I heard about Gumroad but I've been a little reluctant to explore this further because its founder worked for DOGE (yikes).

I'll check out JWPlayer... and explore Wordpress premium video plugins as well...

[mika@paahtimo.social]

@elena I have not personally tested, but you can set password to Peertube videos. Based on article I found you can set multiple passwords using API:

"Users can set a single password during the upload or update process, while admins and developers can manage multiple passwords via the REST API, offering greater flexibility in access control."

So give each customer unique password and then disable them after 48 hours.

This sound like a lot of work so I hope there are some better ways.

https://linuxiac.com/peertube-6-launches-introducing-password-protection-for-videos/

[mathgon@mastodon.xyz]

@elena nextcloud with share link expiration ?

[steter@mastodon.stevesworld.co]

@elena Hm. [Several options and musing went here before I deleted them. There are several ways to do this, with varying degrees of whatever passes for security anymore.]

Faircamp will throw up a page, if you let it, to collect $ for a video or album. It could be modified to have the user input a code you send them (I'm saying a programmer could do that, not that it's part of Faircamp).

That would probably be the cleanest way to do what you want from your website. A simple script could fetch a list from a table, compare the input value, and pass/fail the visitor. If they pass, they're moved on to the movie URL. If they fail, an error message.

[jens@social.finkhaeuser.de]

@elena @luca Honestly this is a Hard Problem ™.

Fundamentally, the federated platform as well as any P2P-based or -assisted system essentially lives from duplicating content chunks liberally.

And in such a system, any kind of protection from unauthorized access, of which pirated copies are merely one use case, essentially comes down to content encryption: you grant access by handing out decryption keys.

So for your use cases, you're basically asking for time limited decryption.

1/n

[jens@social.finkhaeuser.de]

@elena @luca Time-limited decryption is not *really* a solved problem. If you have a decryption key, it can decrypt.

So the two solutions that exist don't lend themselves too well to federation or P2P.

1. Your client behaves well and doesn't store decryption keys, but re-requests them on use. Then you can time limit whether they get a valid reply.
2. You hand everyone individualized decryption keys and/or watermarked content. In either case, that kills the ability to duplicate content.

2/n

[jens@social.finkhaeuser.de]

@elena @luca I haven't yet seen a system which would avoid both approaches. Most layer the problem, and introduce trusted agents at some point, which is #1 in disguise. They may be more manageable, and good enough? I don't really know any.

My best hope here is some zero knowledge proof based system, but they're still, hmm. Let's say they introduce constraints of their own, so it's difficult to derive a generalized solution.

I keep coming back to trying to solve this 🤷

3/3

[luca@sironi.xyz]

@jens @elena

Very interesting points.
By the way I don't believe so much in encrypted content, for whatever kind of content, ebooks, dvd, or the occasional video on demand.

If I really want, I can open obs and record my computer screen.

Of course, is not going to be as awesome as a peer tube p2p streaming that it's shared by all people watching the video in the same time, but maybe something could be done via plugin.

Federating just comments, or a trailer, adding payment plugins, maybe something exists already, I don't know, unfortunately video is a niche where I'm just a spectator.

[nicol@social.coop]

@elena " its founder worked for DOGE"

😮 😮 didn't know that.

[nicol@social.coop]

@elena interesting - Sahil Lavingia's framing is that he'd applied to United States Digital Service under Obama, but struggled with the hiring process and found this as a way to work with the government thru 'the side door'.
https://www.fastcompany.com/91330297/doge-sahil-lavignia-gumroad

I'm not sure if he was genuine but naïve or something worse. He def sounds Valley Hustle, mechanise-all-the-workers https://creativerly.com/the-dark-side-of-gumroad-how-sahil-lavingia-got-involved-with-doge/

But I also missed that he'd open sourced Gumroad - so that's another option I guess! https://github.com/antiwork/gumroad

[lutindiscret@mastodon.libre-entreprise.com]

@elena demander à @GuillaumeDesjardins qui fait https://bunseed.org il a déjà monté des plateformes auto hébergées avec financement. C'est basé sur peertube et... Ghost.

[prinlu@0x.trans.fail]

@elena perhaps this is a good opportunity to collaborate on a feature like this with @freebliss who wrote and continues to develop #hyper8 selfhosting video solution

[justbob@kolektiva.social]

@elena

I've often thought about this very problem for music in the #Fediverse.

Like ghost is doing for writing, it would be incredible to have a video and audio Fediverse server app.

I'm trying to get a ghost server to get people off from substack but it would be fantastic to get people off from Bandcamp too.

I call it #TakeTheInternetBack

[oaj@mastodon.com.pl]

@elena: there is a plugin for PeerTube that lets you to hook into Stripe APIs to handle payments. Maybe that's what you are looking for?

[lutindiscret@mastodon.libre-entreprise.com]

@elena aussi peut-être @bebop