Love the idea; don't like that they ultimately own the satellite.
I would like to see a satellite similar to this, storing and broadcasting a queue of information, but that has a crypto-democractic method of submitting data to broadcast. Requests for data to broadcast submitted to the satellite must be accompanied by a Proof-of-Work. The required level of POW can be dynamically adjusted by the satellite itself based on recent demand.
In other words, the satellite is fully autonomous, with no central control. Anyone can submit data to be broadcast. They just have to "pay" for it.
This solves the problem of who owns the satellite (everyone does), but does still mean money can buy broadcast power. Though people can build systems for helping to "crowdsourcing" POW solutions for desired broadcasts.
NOTE: I haven't read up much on cubesat, and just satellite technology in general, so I don't know how possible this is (in particular, how to manage transmission to the satellite and whether cheap kickstarter sats/cubesats can broadcast data on their own, or are linked to some other satellite).
EDIT: Also, this has the same problem similar systems suffer from: potential to broadcast illegal data. No great solution to that problem other than revising the laws.
Remember that much of wikipedia (and the internet in general) are considered 'illegal data' in some countries.
In this sense -- I believe that the idea here is to indeed broadcast illegal data. I find this project very interesting because it exploits the fact that we still have national laws in an increasingly international society. Because let's face it, whatever data they might broadcast it will likely be illegal somewhere.
I would like to see a satellite similar to this, storing and broadcasting a queue of information, but that has a crypto-democractic method of submitting data to broadcast. Requests for data to broadcast submitted to the satellite must be accompanied by a Proof-of-Work. The required level of POW can be dynamically adjusted by the satellite itself based on recent demand.
In other words, the satellite is fully autonomous, with no central control. Anyone can submit data to be broadcast. They just have to "pay" for it.
This solves the problem of who owns the satellite (everyone does), but does still mean money can buy broadcast power. Though people can build systems for helping to "crowdsourcing" POW solutions for desired broadcasts.
NOTE: I haven't read up much on cubesat, and just satellite technology in general, so I don't know how possible this is (in particular, how to manage transmission to the satellite and whether cheap kickstarter sats/cubesats can broadcast data on their own, or are linked to some other satellite).
EDIT: Also, this has the same problem similar systems suffer from: potential to broadcast illegal data. No great solution to that problem other than revising the laws.