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South Korean Activist To Drop "The Interview" In North Korea Using Balloons
Siddharth Srinivas writes Park Sang Hak, a North Korean democracy activist, said he will start dropping 100,000 DVDs and USBs with Sony's The Interview by balloon in North Korea as early as late January. He's partnering with the U.S.-based non-profit Human Rights Foundation, which is financing the making of the DVDs and USB memory sticks of the movie with Korean subtitles.
Are there 100,000 DVD players or PCs in private hands in North Korea? This doesn't seem like it is likely to have much effect.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
does they have TV with DVD player in NK? not speaking about computers!
That way I don't have to pay for it, I heard it's not that good.
What the hell do they hope to accomplish? I downloaded and watched this movie, and it's completely moronic.
Sounds more a cheap publicity stunt targeted at the rest of the world, than to really have an effect on North Korea
This makes the MPAA very unhappy...I predict drone interdiction strikes and a FISA court approved assassination order.
Well, there is THAT. Watch a funny seditious movie and get killed, or not watch the movie. Gee, which option would I choose? Such a hard choice.
I say we load up every B-2 bomber in our inventory with these DVDs, millions of boxes of Milk Duds, and glitter, and 'carpet bomb' the whole of NK with it all. Maybe that would teach that fat bastard Kim some humility.
Left MS Windows for Linux Mint and never looked back!
Vote for Bernie in 2016!
Wouldn't it be more beneficial to drop information packets which dispassionately explain verifiable truths about the North Korean government rather than an awful American comedy? What benefit could this have, other than perhaps slightly undermining the government's authority?
And how many innocent NK citizens will be consigned to labor camps, for possessing imperialist propaganda blaspheming the "Great Leader?"
So this activist is going to troll the North Korean government. That's awesome. A noble troll. Who would have thought such a contradiction would ever come to exist?
that pick them up and get executed.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
We have to subject them to Seth Rogen, too?
I assume the group involved is at least paying Sony a wholesale price for those DVDs. (Which I didn't think had been released yet enyway) :-)
Surely they wouldn't engage in piracy.
I'd rather drop 100.000 bags w/ food over Africa than try to impress the public with idiotic moves, or drop 100.000 DVDs full of e-books rather than a piece of useless crap to entertain several thousands for a couple of hours.
so no one will be able to watch it legally anyway and sony/mpaa will sue everyone in asia
Speaking of humility....
Your budget is that strong that you can afford to spend millions of dollars on Fuel, salary, dvd's, etc?
Here I thought you were running another massive deficit.
It's as if North Korea is such a backwater that they don't have 40 GB/s Net2 service like ... oh, wait, neither does the US ... my bad.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Dumping food on countries kills off the local farms, causing even greater food insecurity.
Think before you drop bags of food on people's heads, crushing their farm animals and houses.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Show us your calculations.
I feel sorry for north Koreans, haven't they suffered enough? Being given that dogshit movie could count as a war crime.
Actually due to close ties with China, people in North Korea (official DPRK) have access to android phones and even tablets,
just look at the talk from Will Scott which he gave on this years 31c3 at Hamburg.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
No one could predict what would happen when North Koreans finally saw The Interview. After deposing the Kim Dynasty, the Norks installed a new government, a "Brotacracy" where rule was determined by whoever in the country could drink the most alcohol and live. All propaganda was outlawed, and television became a continuous stream of dick jokes and scantily clad women. And worshiped all men was the Great Rogan, the Light-Bringer, and His Prophet Franco, who bequeathed to the Church of Nork the great commandments of partitude and hedonism. Then the nukes flew, as the nations of the world united to purge this cancer from the world forever.
instead of ddos'n why not take over their intranet and stream the film over it? Makes more sense that flying a balloon that will get shot down or land in a tree miles away civilisation?
in areas with massive droughts there is no farms to kill off.
This is not a good thing for the "Human Rights Foundation" (whomever they are) to do.
Drop a B class movie that should have quietly flopped into a country that needs food. Anybody who picks these disks or sticks up could end up executed.
More like a very poor troll than actually being helpful. Unless of course they are just another covert arm of Sony still trying to inflate the movie, after all, the latest news is that the Hack was maybe an insider job, by Sony staff.
Are the single most powerful and effective propaganda that can possibly be dropped there. North Koreans have been getting pamphlets and documents denouncing their leaders for 60+ years, and they are more or less immune to being preached to. However, South Korean dramas and movies are INCREDIBLY popular in the North, and while not everyone has a device to view them on, it is not uncommon for people to group together to watch these things illicitly smuggled in by USB and DVD. Moreover, dramas and movies have done SIGNIFICANTLY more damage in actually convincing people in the north of the south's prosperity in just a few years than in decades of pamphlets proclaiming it to be so. So no, DVDs and USBs in and of themselves are not only NOT crazy, they are the most effective possible thing to send to sow dissent.
That said, the only possible effect THIS movie will have is to show that the world outside of North Korea is free to criticize their leader, which they are already WELL aware of.
Supplying foodstuff to a population normally doesn't work out well for the people you claim you're trying to help. These people in a situation where they can't produce as much as they need to maintain themselves need to find a balance. Sure, you can keep feeding them and let them over populate but in the end the cycle will eventually get so top heavy that any break in the supply chain will cause mass starvation and disease.
Only in the case of disaster does it make sense to bolster a population with essentials like food. Otherwise your efforts are better spent in teaching these people better production and supply chain methods.
Bags of food is false hope. Education is the real way to creating a robust and agile society.
I somehow doubt that the North Korean regime would react sympathetically.
Actually, this is only partially true, north korea is very very complex and the judgement brought to you depends on your status in the hierachy of the system.
(pff.. comunism .. everyone is equal, except that the kims are more equal than others and the politcal elite and the military ..)
If you are part of the "elite" and not doing public display of disobedience you will not be searched or the guards will see nothing, or what's actually mostly the case if your hierachy status is too low, they will have an open hand (bribery) - if you are not even elite, you will need much money,
If you fail all these you are going to labour camp, and there your have a high chance of being executed.
If you are from military and doing these searches you don't want to handcuff a son of the elite, because that would be your death sentence.
NK to the outside wants to be seen as a perfect "democratic" totalitrian system (there are elections!!, however no more than one of everything) - where there is no way around than for all to vote for Kim ***** because (sarcasmtag_on) he is the perfect leader and it's certianly true that everybody knows that ... those who didn't know, well they were *executed*(sarcasmtag_off)
North Korea is at somewhat place three or so as the most corrupt countries, this might sound crazy however, if you
gain a deeper understanding of NK and their people, you will recognize most of them are "normal" under extraordinary circumstances. NK is extremely eliterian, if you are in PyongYang you are part of the elite, there are other biggerish cities that also are elitarian.
If you are working in the military you are part of the "elite" .. think of a 1000 steps hierachy if you are not below 800 you are "elite" and in NK you will do much to keep that status or to rise up.
what does California have to do with anything.
ask the people of ireland how that turned out. UK let a third of the population die from hunger rather than provide help. that's cold bro.
Among other things, it reinforces the (obviously mistaken) notion that journalists are spies. I think it will likely do more harm than good.
a better movie?
What assholes they are.
Sony has only released this movie via streaming and a few theaters so far. Where are they planning on getting these DVD's and USB copies? Are we talking pirated copies? If so then could Sony and North Korea at some point be on the same side in protesting this scheme? Copyright law makes for some strange bedfellows.
"If it's got a switch... it's my bitch!!"
Isn't that piracy? I feel sorry for the actors: Think of all the royalties they ^H^H^H Sony will never get.
Plus, North Koreans watching a Seth Rogen movie: Oh, the horror, the horror. Please, won't someone think of the North Koreans? Their humble ways will be destroyed by decadent Western, umm, decadent Western .... Umm, decadent Western fart jokes. Yeah, that's it.
Like most things, there are both short-term and long-term consequences, and both need to be considered.
I was thinking bottles with USB drives might be more effective - use tides to take them further in-country.
He's a North Korean. He's doing it to help his fellow citizens. Will it help them? I don't know.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
rather send the guys something actually funny, they don't need yet another unfunny thing in their lives.
Instead of trying to work for conciliation, he is trying to stir things up by distributing a tasteless film that only serves to provoke and ridicule, and of course the brainless yanks posting in the thread here is cheering him on. This kind of "activism" should be condoned, not encouraged.
that this movie is a bomb?
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
Think before you drop bags of food on people's heads, crushing their farm animals and houses.
As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!
Instead, he should just drop them and THEN announce what he has done - watch little coward Kim Jung-ul wet his diapers
Great minds think alike. Don't forget to include portable DVD players!
Isn't this called littering?
ask the people of ireland how that turned out
They seem to value and appreciate their sovereignty. What question would you ask?
"Mr. Irishman, would you have rather starved or suffer English influence through English charity?"
Oh, you were taking for-granted the "help" would be free and without obligation, as per the usual la-la land mentality? That's not how the world works, son. Look up "souperism" and learn something.
It's like AOL all over again.
At least they won't get executed from eating a cookie.
Setting back the desire for democracy in North Korea by 20 years :)
Seriously though, am I the only one debating whether Democracy would turn out to be a good thing for them, or if more like East Germany, they'll just get fucked over by the capitalists when they open their boarders and exploited like a bunch of native americans who don't believe in property ownership, intellectual property, and other 'imaginary' things?
As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!
You deserve to be modded up just for that obscure '70 reference. I deserve to be modded up because I recognized it.
Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification
For the benefit of The People?
Or, the benefit of special interests?
Perhaps add some stuxnet in the "goodies" section?
I mean seriously, that's just a bad movie. Apparently even so bad it mostly discredits its makers.
If you want do spend thousands of Euros to drop DVDs, drop something more intelligent. Something that actually makes people think, not something the government can easily discredit as the product of some deranged individuals.
now north koreans will know what stankdick is.
"Hey guys, look how great we are! Here's a terrible comedy making really bad jokes at your expense and where we graphically murder your ruler as part of a secretive CIA plot! Woot democracy!
It'd be like the US sending King Ralph into the UK as Republican propaganda.
That's what happens when right-wing neoliberals get into power, they adopt the ethos 'If you tried harder, you wouldn't be poor in the first place...'
it's a Seth Rogan movie, isn't making someone watch it a crime against humanity?
They are going to drop hundreds of thousands of industry standards on people? It's not even a physical object!
(there is no excuse for this kind of crap on a tech site)
And just plainly ignore the fact it's a commercial movie and to do what they want to do needs the explicit permission of Sony to be able to copy and distribute it...
And they simply don't even think about the enviroment, how many of those balloons will actually end up in the hands of people instead of just being dumped in the woods and streams and affecting wildlife...
The idea is great, but as always with a lot of those lefties, they don't think it through what the actual results are....
"Mr. Irishman, would you have rather starved or suffer English influence through English charity?"
Uh, Ireland was entirely under British control at the time. Kinda makes what you're just after saying look really stupid.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
"Dumping food on countries kills off the local farms, causing even greater food insecurity."
um... if they had working farms, they wouldn't need food dumped on them to begin with.