I recently set up a homelab (this WordPress blog is running on it, right next to my room), for around $800. I bought an Optiplex 7060, loaded it with 64gb memory, a 2TB NVMe, and this month will purchase dual 14TB HDDs for a raid 1 array for cold storage. I have already installed Jellyfin on this NAS, and am able to watch my archive of Mister Rogers videos (acquired on Internet Archive) on my Apple TV using the app SwiftFin. I now just need to find apps for my phone and tablet that will sync with my Jellyfin hoard.
I plan to use Jellyfin to datahoard Creative Commons works. There are many documentaries and short films that are CC. I plan on downloading them and watching them all. There are many musicians on bandcamp and IA that are CC. I plan on acquiring as much as I can, then streaming it through my HiFi and listening to it all. Jellyfin even does books, but I doubt I’d get much use out of that compared to my e-ink Boox tablet.
Nonetheless, I want to datahoard Creative Commons media. See if I can live an entertaining life simply from free CC works, media borrowed from my library, and public domain works. I equally expect to use this datahoard as source material for sampling in the creation process of my own music and videos. I can remix open domain works by nature of their CC or PD status, and I intend to do just that as a hobby.
In a way, a CC Jellyfin hoard would fuel a lifetime of doing my hobbies – making music, art, videos, films, and writing. This would provide thousands of hours of entertainment and source material. Nothing would inspire me to create than having a hoard of freely remixable source material. Even curating this hoard, let alone sitting down and watching it, would be quite an entertaining hobby. I fully intend to dive into my CC Jellyfin hoard.
I would suggest to anyone else they spend a chunk of change on setting up their own Jellyfin instance. When CC material is acquired through IA, bandcamp, and YouTube, there is nothing illegal in your datahoard. Having a CC and PD datahoard would serve as entertainment and source material for sampling. Getting to intimately know the source material would be a wellspring of creativity. I see no downside in maintaining this new hobby. IN fact, I could promote what I find by editing wikipedia to have exhaustive information on what documentaries and music are CC. I could make web pages on this site related to my datahoard (which would be completely legal, afterall).
Just the process of curating and acting as lead librarian/archivist makes me excited. All this is possible through a $800 investment in compute and learning how to set up a homelab (I am running proxmox with an instance of YUNOHost and a separate VM for docker running on Debian to do nginx reverse proxy, Jellyfin, and my RSS feed (I can’t recommend enough getting an RSS reader. It is life changing).
Jellyfin presents a fantastic opportunity to learn even more about contemporary CC artists and works. There is hardly no downside to consuming CC art compared to copyright art. My #1 artist last year on Apple Music was Chris Zabriskie, just because I like his music so much. And his CC BY music is freely available on Internet Archive. I will still keep my Apple Music account, for streaming in the car and while out running, so I can listen to pretty much anything for entertainment! But can hoard CC works on my own server for in-home use (which I obviously can’t do with Apple Music). Apple Music is the only subscription I pay for (besides open access/nonprofit magazines and substacks).
Public access is so important. That is one reason why I’m so eager to proofread the 1500 now-public-domain Little Blue Books on Distributed Proofreaders. even though these books are 100 years old, you can still glean a lot of entertainment and education from reading all 1500, ignoring the historical significance of having a complete epub archive. There is hardly any reason to pay for a subscription unless it is open access or nonprofit. Apple Music is my only exception to this rule. Because there is so much CC work created, and this archive grows faster and faster each year. Hell, I can entertain myself most of the time I’m not reading a (free) library book by reading OER found on Open Textbook Library or Open Access journals found on DOAJ. My “entertainment” quota has been met by CC works, and I continue to believe I will not need to spend more than $200 a year for education /for the rest of my life./ My education and entertainment is a done deal. I don’t need to pay for anything for the rest of my life, except $200 to experiment with new edtech. That $200 is endowed by $3500 worth of index funds, which at 4% withdrawals will pay for my $200 education budget for the rest of my life.
Similarly, $800 in a homelab will hopefully last a decade worth of entertainment. I will get to know CC and PD artists, find new favorite songs and movies, and be able to remix and sample until my heart’s content. Homelab is the solution to “How do I acquire CC and PD works and store them, while also keeping them accessibly viewable?” Jellyfin is the answer to this problem that to which before today I did not have a solution. Now I do, and a new hobby is unfolding.
I highly suggest if you are the littlest bit technology inclined to set up a Creative Commons Jellyfin hoard and consume it on your Apple TV. The up front cost is small for years of entertainment value. You can learn how to be a digital archivist and server admin, all while curated 100% legal-to-download art, music, and movies.
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