One you miss is that if other companies in your industry are RTO, and you don't, the first quarter you under-perform your competitors, your shareholders and activist investors will blame the fact that you haven't RTO when all your competitors have ... !obviously! that is the key issue. Effectively, if everyone else is, you cannot afford not to.

As someone who unfortunately worked for a ringtone vendor for a shot period, the main thrust of the "industry" was mis-selling a hidden/deceptive "subscription" service to children, which was billed through automatic premium rate mobile phone charges. It was a con-job where phone companies and shady ringtone companies conspired tp rip off children who were too embarrassed to tell their parents they screwed up by unknowingly entering into the subscription (by texting something to some number), and couldn't work out how to cancel the subscription (because this was made insanely hard). And then the next month they would get charged again. These people were scum.

also - they never paid the music publishers, as the purchaser/subscriber obtained the ringtone they purchased/subscribed for, but rarely "cashed in" the subscription "credits" for additional ringtones, and the music publishers were only paid for ringtones actually downloaded ... so it was also a con on the music industry.

"I have a friend who is developing and marketing a tool that solves the exact problem you have identified - let me put you in contact with him - perhaps the two of you can come to an arrangement" I can be that friend, if you don't know anybody else ;-)

Lots of technical discussions - but the real answer is that bittorrent/P2P was displaced by Netflix for all but a small number of hard-core users. That, combined with legal threats, and that p2p required volume/scale to work well, meant that the critical mass died. It was a sad day that we, the users of the internet, en-mass exchanged bittorrent for streaming companies.

This, and:

* Asymmetric network links, slow upload especially on cellular

* Traffic package limitations, and both DL and UL are counted

* Some ISP are very against p2p, sometimes it's a government policy (China banned "Residential CDNs")

* NAT

I am a lawyer, but not your lawyer (and not a french Corporate Law lawyer). I've also founded 2 tech startups. It sounds like a poor deal - alternatively it's a low opening bid ... get better legal/commercial advice on this one.

this is a relatively trivial looping programming task ... suitable for a 1st year comp sci student.

LPT: never steal from people more than it costs to have you killed

that was my first thought also, except ICON is bankrupt.

maybe it's difficult to call either way

Not so daft if you consider that it is easier to segment, stratify, and control people in a linear city, as the structure itself acts as a continuous and infinitely adaptable choke point. This seems consistent with Saudi elite's ideas on managing their society.

But that would only make sense if most people lived in a line city.

There are much more effective ways to achieve population control than building line cities and moving people into them.

That explains why it might have been an appealing concept to the inceptor but it's still daft and it was obvious to me from the start that it wouldn't actually be made. I still don't know why anybody humored the premise of this thing getting built.

Worked well for Snowpiercer, so why not.

Daft in the case of a military conflict or some terrorist attack.