A few home entertainment notes

On Sunday my wife and I went for a walk, which took us past our movie guy. You know, the guy who sells movies on the street corner, three for ten bucks (or if you're a really good customer, four). He was standing there, but without his table of DVDs. He told us that he was on TV last week, then arrested the next day. No movies this week. Come back soon (next week). The only reason he was there was to tell his loyal customers not to worry, I guess.

I've had to resort to the internet. I guess I'm not alone.
I noticed this related story today on Yonhap(It is a month old, but it relates to my anecdote):

Nearly half of South Koreans pirate movies

SEOUL, Dec. 18 (Yonhap) -- Nearly half of Internet users in South Korea, one of the most densely wired countries in the world, illegally download a full-length movie a week, a survey released Tuesday showed.

The survey of 2,358 on-line surfers, aged from 15 to 49, conducted by the Korean Film Council, said that as many as 47.3 percent had downloaded feature films through file sharing sites, by paying no money or less than 100 won (US$ 0.11) per film during the past year.

In a related note, this probably isn't news to most of you since it is also a month old, but if you are not US military (or associated with it) you won't be getting AFKN on TV in the near future. (Also from Yonhap):

S. Korean cable operators banned from airing USFK's TV channel

By Koh Byung-joon
SEOUL, Dec. 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's broadcasting watchdog on Sunday announced its decision to ban local cable TV operators from relaying the U.S. Forces Korea's English-language television broadcasting to Korean cable subscribers.

The planned ban, however, will be enforced after a months-long grace period, in consideration of the inconvenience it will cause Korean viewers of the AFN-K channel, the Korean Broadcasting Commission said.

I actually stopped my cable service last June, so no more time wasted in front of the tube. That wasted time has been replaced with time in front of the LCD computer monitor watching TV shows from the Online Video Guide--a portal offering dozens of sites that have movies and TV shows. (For TV, ALLUC seems to be the best, while there are a variety that are good for movies.)

I'm still watching the same amount of TV, only now it is on my computer (without cable fees).