Her post reminded me of the early days, when you could walk into a government storefront in Havana and get the latest software from the US copied onto floppy disks. You had to bring your own floppies and, if you wanted a copy of the manual, your own copier paper. I was surprised at how current the software was.
Do others have anecdotes or data on the traffic in flash-drive content -- cultural or political?
This one is funny. Did you know some guys in Cuba actually sell those "copying" services? Someone goes to your home with a USB flash or an external hard drive with pirated tv shows/movies/software/[put your favorite digital content here] and he/she charges you a small fee for the service. Usually those guys have contact with a network administrator that can download the content (with a lot of patience) during the night at his/her workplace. This kind of activity is usually tolerated by the government as long as the "content" is not political.
ReplyDeleteCool -- Pirate Bay with home delivery.
DeleteSee an announce of one of this services on the popular website revolico.com:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.revolico.com/servicios/peliculas-series-videos/series-la-temporada-a-10-pesos-mn-y-capitulos-sueltos-1-peso-4036972.html
That is open for all to see -- I guess the government does not object. I remember in India VoIP was illegal at one time, but people advertised service openly.
Deleteit's a pretty common business, i have friends who purchase a weekly dump ranging in quantity (anywhere from 4-10gb) for about $3CUC, this includes that weeks movie releases, music releases, series episode, music videos and other random things. it's a pretty good deal all things considered, there are even resellers who might sell a new movie release for $2 pesos moneda nacional.
ReplyDeletesidenote: larry i enjoy your blog but rarely have time to comment. keep it up.
Thanks for letting us know what sorts of things are distributed and what the price is. Are movies and TV series episodes available soon after they are released? Do people distribute software the same way? Is this pretty much restricted to Havana or is it spread all over?
DeleteAs you have time, let us know about the Internet in Cuba.
And, thanks for the sidenote.
TV series are pretty much updated weekly, depending on the series and it's demand it can be the next day. Same goes for movies, the more the demand for a new release the quicker it'll get put out. A lot of the material is also then burned to dvd playable discs and sold also, sometimes as the "action movies" series with say 4-5 action movies with the same actor, or say by movie series, say "Fast & Furious" grouping all 5 release of that group of movies on one disc, those usually go for 20-25 pesos moneda nacional (~1 US$). As far as I know software is distributed by flash drive as well, but certain things are available on intranet servers, such as free anti-virus programs with updates, a Cuban Linux build, and different tools for copying files, zipping, editting, etc, a lot of free ware, realy software (bigger in size too) is usually pirated and flash drived around.
DeleteAs far as I know this is in other provinces too, though distribution in terms of new releases i'm not sure of. The sharing of flash drives is very common, especially amongst foreign students and cubans with computer access.
Thanks for the update!
ReplyDelete> TV series are pretty much updated weekly,
Back in the 1990s, people were watching TV using antennas that intercepted the signals being sent to Havana hotels and the government stopped them. It sounds like they now allow people to watch entertainment without interference.
It would be cool to get a copy of the "table of contents" from some of these. Is it just that people know people who
It would also be cool to get a listing of the software available for intranet download.
In the early days, you could go to a government run storefront in Havana and get copies of US software a short time after it was released.
> real software (bigger in size too) is usually pirated and flash drived around.
For example, could you get a copy of Windows 8 right now? It is not yet available for general sale in the US, but Microsoft contract customers can get it now.
Totalitarian regimes are on the brink of reaching a sort of Technological Singularity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity). They entirely depend on total information control but that is no longer possible in today's world. With the advent of ever cheaper, smaller computing devices pretty soon even places like North Korea will cease to exist as we know them. Cuba's singularity will come even sooner due to its geographical location and current influx of information from exiles and foreigners living in democracies.
ReplyDeleteRafael,
DeleteAs the Wikipedia article you linked to points out, different people use the term "singularity" in different ways. Vinge's notion of super-human artifical intelligence that will begin innovating and designing new more-intelligent machines that will do things we humans cannot conceive of is a lot more radical than your use -- radical changes in our society brought about by new technologies.
Your view that information technology and the Internet would lead to freedom and democracy was widely held in the early days of the Internet. That belief, fueled by the example of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, was espoused by Raul Castro and prevailed in Cuba, contributing to the sad state of the Internet there.
It seems the Internet has been a tool of successful democratic movements in many nations, but not all. Dictators use the Internet as well as democrats. (see http://cis471.blogspot.com/search/label/dictator%27s%20dilemma).
I'm thinking of China as a place where the Internet seems to be wide-spread, but under pretty effective government control.
Larry,
ReplyDeleteI believe we are witnessing an ongoing process in history. This is a page that's not yet completely turned. China has a peculiar situation because they are enjoying a period of economic prosperity (compared to their past) so for most Chinese there is not a strong incentive to conspire through technological means against their government. However, everything that goes up must come down and when that happens, good luck controlling all those billions of young individuals. Also, the Internet is but one sprocket of the technological revolution, though it's easy to filter it it's impossible to completely tame this wild horse. Other advances in component miniaturization, near orbit satellite communications and handheld computing will actually bring about more change than the instantly interconnected Internet we are used to navigating.
Rafael,
DeleteI agree with your assesment of China -- people who can afford Internet access tend to be happy with the regime.
Ramiro Valdés also referred to the Internet as a "wild horse" (http://laredcubana.blogspot.com/search?q=Ramiro+Vald%C3%A9s+). Is that phrase commonly used in Cuba when speaking of the political implications of the Internet?
Ramiro Valdes is one of the worst things that has happened to Cuba in terms of technology and internet access. One of his first "measures" when he took power at the MIC was to prevent illegal access to internet by allowing only one phone number per user account, and he wanted those PHONE accounts to be paid in US dollars instead of the current cuban pesos. Only foreigners living in Cuba can have (and are forced to have) phone accounts paid in dollars, and they are extremely expensive. This "measure" could have "worked", but for once in recent Cuban history a few V.I.P members in the "national assembly" (like Silvio Rodriguez) prevented it from happening.
DeleteThe phrase became popular after the blog Potro Salvaje (Wild Horse) was launched in 2009. That's the one thing Ramiro got right while working as Communications minister because this wild horse is about to trample him and all those on the wrong side of history.
ReplyDeleteThere's another saying about how rats abandon ship when it is sinking but it doesn't explain that the ones that do escape do so by trampling and selling out the others. The time for Cuba's rats to crawl out is now.