News

Kiosk in Ethiopia mall sells pirated movies via USB port

May 2, 2017

A company called SwiftMedia is producing ATM-style kiosks that sell pirated movies that get transferred to USB sticks, according to TorrentFreak, a publication that covers copyright, piracy and file sharing news.

A TorrentFreak reader spotted the machine at a discount department store in a mall in Ethiopia. He sent pictures of the machine shaped like an ATM that contains a USB port.

A customer plugs in a USB drive, then browses through an archive of movies that appear on the screen. The customer then selects movies to purchase. The movies get transferred to their USB stick.

The source said the movies are priced between $1 and $3. There are also songs and TV shows available priced at 13 cents.

"Needless to say, DRM and copyright protection aren't high on the agenda for this unusual and innovative machine," TorrentFreak noted.

TorrentFreak contacted a company associated with SwiftMedia called Escape Computing which ran an ad for sales person, but received no response.