To minimize the impact of harms like Resource Abuse Copyright/IP Infringement, change the design of File/Link Sharing.
Intervention:

Don't support large files

Definition: Large, high quality, high volume uploads are both risky and expensive.
Kind of Intervention:
Limits
Reversible:
Challenging to Rollout
Suitability:
General
Technical Difficulty:
Easy

Copyright infringement happens on every site on the internet that enables users to upload and share content. Placing reasonable limits on file upload + sharing can dramatically reduce a site's usefulness for piracy.

  • Limiting file uploads to 100MB or less reduces a site's usefulness for piracy writ-large.
  • Limiting uploaded video to 70 minutes reduces usefulness for pirating movies.
  • Limiting the number of uploads a user can make in a day to 10 or fewer reduces usefulness as a medium for pirating TV shows.

This simple change also has significant benefits for reducing infrastructure cost risks, and if it doesn't impact the business use case, doesn't really have downsides.

As always, product designers can think about how to provide users that have greater levels of trust the ability to bypass these limitations, as a form of a graduated feature.

Is something missing, or could it be better?
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