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Comment by higherpurpose | Hacker News Reader

This could be the right time for Netflix to move to P2P, so then most of the bandwidth isn't consumed by them, but by their users.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/netflix-switched-p2p-video-str...

It's going to take a lot to fight the likes of Comcast in this one, which means Netflix will also need support from the community - so Netflix, please stop it with the boneheaded DRM push on the web. Guess what, if you are going to use P2P, you're going to need a plugin or native app anyway. So just stop trying to corrupt W3C already in a pointless move that can't and won't stop piracy anyway (which I'm sure you already know).

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Is it Netflix fighting for DRM, or is it the content creators demanding DRM and Netflix simply wanting to move to HTML5 while still being able to continue licensing shows from the creators.

P2P would shift the congestion from transit links to shared upstream last mile links which will probably make ISPs even more unhappy.

Thats the point. Play ball now (Comcast) because you might not like what they (Netflix) do next.

it would also shift the cost to consumers.. at least once you use up your data cap.

"Though Comcast doesn't disclose it specifically, analysts have estimated that Comcast's profit margins on broadband service are 80 percent or higher. In 2008, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst Craig Moffett estimated Comcast's data margins at 80 percent, and Credit Suisse reported in fall 2010 that Comcast's gross margins on high-speed data were 93 percent."

https://www.freepress.net/sites/default/files/resources/Comc...

Unless you're using your ISPs video streaming service. :)

and this would be bad how? :)

It would interfere with customers' other uploads (like backups), it would probably lead to poor service (how do you use 2Mbps peers to deliver 5Mbps streams?), and it would create another loophole for Comcast to degrade service that we'd spend months arguing about.

Oh I get it, your argument is 'dont do anything that will show how badly overbooked Comcast is'.

It would be really interesting if they offered reduced subscription fees for anyone who acts as an edge CDN node for them!

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