This is Cuba's Netflix, Hulu, and Spotify – all without the internet
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN uses it as the standard example of sneakernet media distribution via hard drives.
What it is
A Vox report on El Paquete Semanal, the weekly offline bundle of shows, music and news that is smuggled and sold in Cuba. It shows how people get media without internet access.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2016 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Recommends placeybordeaux · 2016-08 · on “The Cuban CDN”
I'd recommend watching the video that is linked: [this video] It talks about the mechanics, largely it looks like someone in Miami is consistently collecting stuff until they get close to 1TB or a week has passed, then that 1TB is flown out to Havana and it's copied and passed around after that.
Cites 29athrowaway · 2023-04 · on “Internet in a Box”
This is how people consume content in Cuba [this video] If you like this story, I recommend this documentary: [LINK] (Chuck Norris vs Communism)
Cites movedx · 2026-07 · on “'VPNs are lawful technical tools,' says EU Court in landmark copyright ruling”
This is hard to read, but I think you're saying the Internet will see a shift to "Sneaker Net" like tactics where people torrent stuff, store it on HDDs, and just move those HDDs around? Like they do in Cuba: [this video] For the most part, I agree.