ATM-Style Kiosk Pumps out Pirate Movies to USB Sticks

Megalith

Megalith

24-bit/48kHz
Staff member
Joined
Aug 20, 2006
Messages
13,000
Kiosks spotted over in Ethiopia are giving RedBox a run for their money (do they even have RedBox over there?). For $1 to $3, you can get the latest movie releases simply by plugging in a USB stick. These machines are reportedly “maintained” by someone who torrents movies all day and uploads them to the device. No, you are not going to be seeing these around here any time soon.

“At the beginning of this year, All Mart (the Walmart equivalent here) brought in a new machine. It’s basically a monitor with a USB port but shaped like an ATM. It’s called SwiftMedia and there’s a guy who ‘maintains’ it,” our source explains. “Basically you go to this very big store and you approach the machine and you plug in a USB drive. The screen will turn on and it will let you browse through a massive archive of movies.” “At first I assumed these movies had their rights lifted or something because well, you know, but then I later found out that the movies I had first seen were just there on release day,” our source continues.
 
That's crazy. I'm blown away that someone like "All Mart" would allow this. I mean, the possibilities for lawsuits are ridiculous and it's not like these places...no matter what country they're in...are run by complete idiots...right? I mean there has to be people of reasonable intelligence running these places that would see the legal implications of this. Of course that is if Ethiopia can be touched like that.
 
That's the thing...who would you sue, the Ethiopian government? I doubt they have much money. And what if they decide not to pay up, then what?
 
You could easily get away with this in most African countries and many South American countries. Hell, you can buy pirate movies on dvd and cd's on street corners for $1 all day all over Asia and Indonesia.
 
I'm not at all surprised to see this. I lived in Russia for a few years in the early 2000's and I can't tell you where you would have gone (back then, at least) to even buy a legit DVD/VHS. Even the big-box stores there sold pirated copies. When I spent some time in Dubai in ~2005, there was a store there called Carrefour (it's a big European store similar to Walmart) that sold pirated movies under the guise of legitimacy. My parents lived in Beijing for ~5 years and they had no idea where to buy legit movies for the longest time.

Most of the problem lies with distribution/cost. Studios/Major distributors don't (or didn't when I was there) sell their movies in these countries. Even if they did, there are very few Russians/Ethiopians/Chinese that could afford the $20 price tag we have in the US. While I don't agree with Piracy, it's a a problem with a thousand shades of grey and with the rise of digital distribution/increased globalization, it's only going to get more complex.
 
Mut1ny said:
it's not like these places...no matter what country they're in...are run by complete idiots...right?
Click to expand...
Much of these countries are rich in resources, and according to the United Nations, 60% of the world's arable land is on the African continent. Look at South Africa, under foreign leadership, the small tip alone accounted for a higher GDP than the rest of Africa combined, and the South African Government purchased almost 6 million hectares of profitable, successful, wealth producing farms, since 1994 for land redistribution, and as of today approximately 90% are lying unused and unproductive. Even worse results were experienced in Zimbabwe where land was seized and redistributed, and within a couple years the population is starving unable to even maintain the working facilities they had taken.

no-white-person-will-be-allowed-to-own-mugabe-begs-1338514.png


So, yes, their leadership is that bad.
 
Krixon said:
My parents lived in Beijing for ~5 years and they had no idea where to buy legit movies for the longest time.

Most of the problem lies with distribution/cost. Studios/Major distributors don't (or didn't when I was there) sell their movies in these countries.
Click to expand...

In China at least, all movies must go through a single state owned distribution company. So you either work with them or you do not sell in China.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Film_Group_Corporation
 
Ducman69 said:
Even worse results were experienced in Zimbabwe where land was seized and redistributed, and within a couple years the population is starving unable to even maintain the working facilities they had taken.
Click to expand...

Look up before/after videos and pictures of Johannesburg South Africa. Their heart was in the right place getting rid of Apartheid, they just forgot to ask for tips & tricks before kicking out the devil.
 
westrock2000 said:
In China at least, all movies must go through a single state owned distribution company. So you either work with them or you do not sell in China.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Film_Group_Corporation
Click to expand...

This is true, but it only, in reality, applies to movies in the theaters. Not only do the movies have to go through the Chinese state approval process, but there are also only a limited number of them allowed per year, so studios will fight over each other to make their movies the most appealing to the censors.

I was speaking more about the lack of legitimate DVD sales in China. And, you're correct, only those movies approved by the censor board would be for sale in legitimate distribution streams. The ease, however, with which you can find pirated movies means that many won't bother looking for the legit copy. This is usually for three reasons. One, people there (in my experience) know full well that their government censors media and want to see the original cut; two, they get to see movies that were not approved by the censor board; three, the average cost of a pirated movie from a shop is about 20-25 RMB, depending on the quality of the rip (about 3-4 USD).
 
Mut1ny said:
That's crazy. I'm blown away that someone like "All Mart" would allow this. I mean, the possibilities for lawsuits are ridiculous and it's not like these places...no matter what country they're in...are run by complete idiots...right? I mean there has to be people of reasonable intelligence running these places that would see the legal implications of this. Of course that is if Ethiopia can be touched like that.
Click to expand...

It's a whole different world over there man. You can't even think of it at all like you do the US, Canada, or Western Europe.
 
westrock2000 said:
Look up before/after videos and pictures of Johannesburg South Africa. Their heart was in the right place getting rid of Apartheid, they just forgot to ask for tips & tricks before kicking out the devil.
Click to expand...

That's right. Now if only us evil white devils would just leave America then all the problems in the world would go away and everything would be great. Men too, we cause all sorts of problems so we all gotta go too, no matter what color your skin is.
 
Pumps out Pirate movies? Other than Cutthroat Island and Pirates of the Caribbean, what else is there?
 
Oh I totally used this service. Where else could I reliably find the Oscar hits?

- Man-ingester by the Sea
-Poonlight
-Slutty Beasts and where to Bone Them
-Vagsaw Ridge
-Squirter Squad

Well done third-world seeder.. well done. :wacky:
 
Damn, that's more advanced than the guy who sets up a white table and a layout of crappy xeroxed DVD sleeves in thin cases in front of my local shopping center and has his bluetooth speaker constantly barking out an advertisement for release day movies in spanish.
 
Wish I have this in my town in Malaysia. Basic internet speed here is 64kbps...so streaming videos legally is totally impossible.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top