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from the do-not-welcome-your-communist-overlords dept.
Susan Crawford reports on "El Paquete" (the package), Cuba's answer to the internet, an informal but extraordinarily lucrative distribution chain where anyone in Cuba who can pay can watch telenovelas, first-run Hollywood movies, brand-new episodes of Game of Thrones, and even search for a romantic partner. The so-called "weekly package," which is normally distributed from house to house contains the latest foreign films a week, shows, TV series, documentaries, games, information, music, and more. The thumb drives make their way across the island from hand to hand, by bus, and by 1957 Chevy, their contents copied and the drive handed on. "El Paquete plays to Cuban strengths and needs," writes Crawford because Cubans are great at sharing. "And being paid to be part of the thumb-drive supply chain is a respectable job in an economy that is desperately short on employment opportunities." Sunday the "weekly package" of 1 terabyte is priced at $ 10, then $2 on Monday or Tuesday and $1 for the rest of the week.
The sneakernet is still in use today in other parts of the world including Bhutan where a sneakernet distributes offline educational resources, including Kiwix and Khan Academy on a Stick to hundreds of schools and other educational institutions. Google once used a sneakernet to transport 120 TB of data from the Hubble Space Telescope.
"Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of magnetic tapes hurtling down the highway".
Original Submission
(Score: 2) by scruffybeard on Tuesday June 16 2015, @04:06PM
Reminds me of stories that people used to tell about smuggling and sharing prohibited religious materials in the Soviet Bloc countries. Much of it was done with a wink and a nod as long as you were not distributing anything that challenged the ruling party. In other cases the officials could be paid to look the other way. I suspect the same is happening here. El Packet is not a problem because Watching Game of Thrones, and the other relatively small volume of content, is probably not going to stir a revolution, so it is easier for the authorities to let the people get away with it, and possibly get a piece of the action.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 16 2015, @04:13PM
See also North Korea:
http://www.wired.com/2015/03/north-korea/ [wired.com]
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/01/we-hacked-north-korea-with-balloons-and-usb-drives/283106/ [theatlantic.com]
(Score: 2) by zugedneb on Tuesday June 16 2015, @04:38PM
Reminds me of stories that people used to tell about smuggling and sharing prohibited religious materials in the Soviet Bloc countries.
Used to lived in romania until 13, and can tell that the main christian religions (and judaism) were not forbidden there at least... Dunno about others, but there were Jehovas witnesses and some other minor sects to. What i know, russia is/was not that much different.
So, what particular type of religious material was this?
old saying: "a troll is a window into the soul of humanity" + also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ajax
(Score: 2) by scruffybeard on Tuesday June 16 2015, @06:08PM
One story that I recall was regarding bibles in Russia. The story may have been part truth and part propaganda, and I was young when I heard it, so please take it with a grain of salt. I suppose my point was that "black markets" will pop-up around prohibited, or scarce items.
(Score: 4, Funny) by M. Baranczak on Tuesday June 16 2015, @06:15PM
I remember a gentleman coming and telling us how very difficult it had proved to get the Bible into Tibet. There had been seven occasions: the first time, there had been landslides. The second time, it rained - the pages got stuck together. The third time, the mules fell off the mountainside. The fourth time, there were thunder bolts, and so on. The seventh time, he said, "God helped us! And we got the Bibles into Tibet." The obvious conclusion is that God was trying like hell to stop them.
- John Cleese