Ahh fair enough! Yeah, not sure about all that.

A very long time ago I remember there being FUSE filesystems that allow you to mount a .torrent like a network drive. I have no idea if these are still kicking though. Still doesn’t provide all of your extra bullet points but might be a good start to the rabbit hole

I suppose this explains why I keep having to move Funkwhale servers every few months because they keep shutting down (That and the usual “server costs outweighing the donation pot” issue).

Shit me, 200gb in metadata, 2.2TB in cover art before we even touch a piece of music! Wild

Torrents manage this without any extra tech. Just grab the .torrent file, and only select the files you have space for. Download them then seed, and get your 150 friends to do different files. If I then go to download a file that’s in your batch, the download will happen from your server (and whoever else is seeding these files), and if I go to download a file that’s on one of your 150 others’ server it’ll download from there.

I feel deeply sorry for the poor EU agent who has to sift through the depravity that likely exists on your average MAGA twat’s phone. You hear about those police staff members who have to view all the CSAM to investigate it and how it traumatises them, this would be the next tier down