In Ethiopia, pirate movie kiosks hide in plain sight

With the rise of cheap, easy and legal streaming services, actually pirating a movie or song seems like way too much effort. But in those places where high-speed internet may not be as prevalent, and those services are too pricey, other methods are required. In one Ethiopian shopping mall, for instance, there's apparently an ATM-style kiosk that enables locals to purchase illegally-obtained movies for cents.

The device was spotted by a TorrentFreak reader who explained that the bright yellow kiosk is just sitting there in public. According to the description, the unit is packing a touchscreen and a customer-facing USB port for users to plug in their own flash drives. They're then able to browse through brand new movies, TV shows and music to buy for around 20 cents a pop.

Apparently, the device is maintained by a local operator, who spends their time torrenting movies and then uploading them to the box. The fact that the box stands, proud as anything, on the plaza at a shopping mall, is a testament to how different things are in other places. As the report explains, Ethiopia's government has "bigger issues" to deal with than movie piracy, which enables the practice to exist.