It is likely that all the media we possess today will become unavailable even faster than VHS tapes, so ubiquitous back in the 90s. I still have DVD's from a showing of 'Oklahoma' my eldest played a lead role in back in the day, but I have no DVD player and have but my proud memories of his amazing singing voice. We continually see tech advance making prior formats obsolete, and media even more so. I can still play MP3's I collected decades ago, despite the CD's I ripped them from no longer having any way to be played on my setup.
The advent of .webp and .avif make me sad, because I have no app other than my browser that reveals the image. That, in fact, concerns me, because by making new formats and not making new apps to use and edit them, TPTB can leave us unable to make memes or share our own media, leaving us only propaganda.
Thanks!
I bought a USB DVD drive to access physical media on my laptop. I, too, hate the growth of .webp files online. But there is a growing interest in open source. We may prevail in the face of IP control freaks.
Something that is affecting the issue of media formats is also evident across the spectrum of standards promulgated by agencies, boards, and councils that are charged with regulation: regulatory capture. From law enforcement agencies, to medical boards and hospitals, to media standards, highly financially endowed corporations are corrupting such agencies to favor standards producing flows of funds and power to the corporations.
IMHO we need to decentralize such regulatory standards. If Hive proves nothing else, it proves that the community is able to discuss, agree, and fund the acceptance of standards, with voting cryptographically secured from tampering and verifiable by the voters themselves, which obviates boards and councils that were necessary to represent users in the days of the Pony Express, before encrypted electronic communications enabled the entire world to confer and decide such matters themselves.
We cannot be bribed to vote against our freedom and prosperity, and it is demonstrable that representatives are hopelessly incapable of resisting graft to be incorruptible.
ASME & SAE standards are non-governmental. UL (Underwriters Laboratories) is non-governmental. We don't need to point out obs ure technological projects most people don't understand to show how voluntary projects succeed and provide robust decentralized solutions.
FLAC is FOSS.
Linux runs the internet already.
Podcasts and independent media can crush legacy media in reach.
We are in many ways standing at the tipping point. Political overreach and corporate power are both growing, but also belong undermined at innumerable points. We don't need a violent overthrowing, we need a quiet realization they are unnecessary. Crypto might be the last piece of the puzzle, and it's just a matter of time before it displaces government fiat.
As long as cryptos depend on the physical infrastructure owned by corporations, that will only be as possible as corporations want it. Nothing more than censorship, which can be implemented with utter facility on privately owned infrastructure, is necessary to eliminate any financial value of every crypto.