What is 'El Paquete Semanal', a popular illegal service for Cuban citizens whose entertainment such as movies, games, and novels is strictly regulated?

In Cuba, high-speed Internet penetration is low, and there are strict regulations on entertainment content such as movies, games, and novels. For this reason, an illegal content package service called ' El Paquete Semanal ' is popular among Cubans. ElTOQUE, an independent media that disseminates Cuban information, summarizes 'El Paquete Semanel'.

EL PAQUETE SEMANAL: ALTERNATIVA ANTE LA DESCONEXIÓN EN CUBA

https://paquetesemanal.eltoque.com/

El Paquete de Dany-YouTube


Cuba's national television has eight channels, with a total of more than 140 hours of programming per day. However, until 2008, the only people who could access video content produced overseas were facilities of authorized diplomatic corps, hotels where Cuban nationals were not allowed to stay, certain national institutions, and a very small number of people. In addition, Article 303 of the Cuban Penal Code enacted in 1987 stipulates that ``the production and distribution of publications, prints, films, magnetic tapes, sound recordings, photographs, obscene material, etc. is prohibited”. In addition, Article 103 of the Penal Code prohibits ``the creation, distribution, and possession of propaganda that would shake the social order or socialist state.''

Being prohibited by law means El Paquete Semanel is of course an illegal service. It is unknown who started this El Paquete Semanel, but it is said that the origin is an illegal rental video store. Initially, it was a service that secretly rented VHS and CDs, but content data became mainstream, and USB devices containing content began to be delivered.

'El Paquete Semanel' means 'general purpose product' in Spanish, and this El Paquete Semanel is updated once a week with a set of contents called 'packages'. The package of El Paquete Semanel is stored on the HDD owned by the vendor, and the person who knows the location copies the content to the USB drive at the request of his friends, relatives and neighbors.

According to elTOQUE, the main routes of content distribution for El Pakete Semanel are as follows.

1: People who record and download content using satellite broadcasting and the Internet. Or a promoter who records music with an artist in a studio.
2: People who record/download and organize data provided by promoters.
3: Primary purchaser who negotiates directly with the head office to purchase data and records it on a local HDD on a weekly basis.
4: A secondary purchaser who purchases content from a primary purchaser.
5: A messenger that purchases content from secondary purchasers and also provides rewriting services for USB drives that store content and clothing sales.
6: Final purchasers who indirectly purchase content from primary purchasers through messenger.

The messenger pays $ 2 (about 280 yen) a week from the secondary purchaser to purchase the content, but the messenger receives $ 1 (about 140 yen) a week from each household that will be the final purchaser. As of December 2020, one messenger was earning a total of $ 100 (about 14,000 yen) or more a week. Considering that the average monthly income in Cuba at that time was 30 dollars (about 5200 yen), we are earning a considerable income. Also, people who record and download at the tip of the distribution channel may earn $ 1000 (about 140,000 yen) a week.

According to elTOQUE, between December 25, 2017 and March 2, 2020, 246 packages were updated with El Paquete Semanel, containing 1,659,582 files for a total of 125.67 TB. It is said that it will reach. It seems that movies, melodramas, musicals, music videos, variety programs, sports, anime, ISO data of games, novels, etc. were distributed.

In particular, there is no legal music market in Cuba, and Cuban national music has been circulating underground for a long time. Although it is distributed on YouTube, Apple Music, Instagram, Spotify, etc., such platforms are blocked in Cuba, so it is the current situation that although it is home country music, it is popular in El Paquete Semanel. It is

In addition, in order to manage the spread of El Paquete Semanel, the Cuban government has adopted a countermeasure that the government operates a pirated version of El Paquete Semanel and distributes classic movies, classical music, and teaching materials. This pirated version of El Paquete Semanel was called `` Mochila '' or `` Maletín '', which means `` bag containing books '' in Spanish, but of course it seems that it was unpopular with the public and had little effect.