Speaking at a seminar for the Cinema Expo this week, Paramount Pictures COO Fred Huntsberry said that average Joe unauthorized movie downloaders are no longer Hollywood’s biggest threat, with that spot being taken by “Cyberlockers,” illegal subscription services.
Huntsberry says cyberlockers are usually run by mobs in foreign nations, which download hot pirated films, then sell them to the public in unlimited streaming for as low as $5 a month for a subscription.
“Cyberlockers now represent the preferred method by which consumers are enjoying pirated content,” says the COO, via Reuters.
Cyberlocker businesses normally operate from Russia, Ukraine, Colombia and Germany, and most sties even have ads from such big-time names like Netflix, KFC and Samsung, which have unwittingly been placed there.
“Sometimes these sites look better than the legitimate sites,” adds Huntsberry. “That’s the irony.”
Huntsberry warned that users of cyberlockers risk having their credit card information stolen.
Result for: colombia
The Spanish company Telefonica has announced it will distribute the iPhone to 16 countries in Latin America and the Czech Republic after striking a deal with Apple.
“The 16 countries where we will distribute the iPhone have a market potential of 500 million people, making us one of the global leaders in the distribution of these revolutionary handsets,” Telefonica Chairman Cesar Alierta said in a statement.
Telefonica already sells the phone in the UK and Ireland through O2 and will begin selling the device in Spain on July 11th.
The 16 new countries are the Czech Republic, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Unlike its current markets however, the new markets will not be exclusive for Telefonica as America Movil has already signed a deal to distribute the phone in most of those countries.
