[whatwg] Limiting the amount of downloaded but not watched video

[David Singer]

I feel like we are asking this question at the wrong protocol level.

If you use the HTML5 video tag, you indicate the resource and the protocol used to get it, in a URL.

If you indicate a download protocol, you can hardly be surprised if, well, download happens.

If you want a more tightly coupled supply/consume protocol, then use one.  As long as it's implemented by client and server, you're on.

Note that the current move of the web towards download in general and HTTP in particular is due in no small part to the fact that getting more tightly coupled protocols -- actually, any protocol other than HTTP -- out of content servers, across firewalls, through NATs, and into clients is...still a nightmare.  So, we've been given a strong incentive by all those to use HTTP.  It's sad that some of them are not happy with that result, but it's going to be hard to change now.

David Singer
Multimedia and Software Standards, Apple Inc.