The code that runs Redbox DVD rental machines has been dumped online, and, in the wake of the company’s bankruptcy, a community of tinkerers and reverse engineers are probing the operating system to learn how it works. Naturally, one of the first things people did was make one of the machines run Doom.
As has been detailed in several great articles elsewhere, the end of Redbox has been a clusterfuck, with pharmacies, grocery stores, and other retailers stuck with very large, heavy, abandoned DVD rental kiosks. To many people’s surprise, many of the kiosks remain operational even with the bankruptcy of Redbox’s parent company, which has led some people to “liberate” DVDs from the abandoned kiosks. Reddit is full of posts by people who say they have taken dozens of DVDs from kiosks all over the country.
In a Discord community called “Redbox Tinkering,” a FAQ states “just ask the store manager if you can have it. They will most likely tell you to just take it, but don’t just take it without asking.”
“Use heavy or appliance hand-trucks/dolly to wheel it onto your trailer or out to your truck,” the FAQ says. “It is heavy, so be prepared. I pull it right onto the trailer and strap it down standing up. You can lay them down, but know that most of the discs will be in disarray when you open it. Take everything having to do with Redbox, don’t leave a mess.” The FAQ also contains information about how to disconnect the Redbox from its power supply and how to cut through the bolts that secure the kiosk to concrete with a grinder. It also has information about how to open and disassemble the device at home.
“Unlike most tinkerer's my main goal isn't to reverse engineer the Official Software more than I have to. I am mainly interested in carousel movement, movie retrieving/returning, etc. I am using the machine to make my own version of the App to effectively do the same thing the original software does, but with my own spin on it. I mainly want to use it to create a massive DVD/Blu-Ray storage machine with ease of use for retrieving the movies.”
“I work in IT and have a decent sized Homelab and I've always been interested in making things work again once they break,” they added.
It’s crazy to me that a company can just abandon hundreds (or thousands?) of 700 pound machines all over the place like this. I feel like there should be some kind of court order for the person last in charge of the company to drive the fuck around the country and clean up their mess.
I got downvoted for this before, but, when you sublet your property like this, you take on an inherent risk. This isn't any different to a bad tenant, or an investment not panning out.
Any business who accepted these red boxes should have either a) established contingency with Redbox themselves or, failing that, b) established a contingency through their own means by keeping liquidity to handle disposal of the machine (or something like insurance)
Don't feel sorry for these businesses, they took a calculated risk, likely made lots of money over the last decade, and now are faced with potentially needing to use some of that revenue to dispose of the machines. Any normal business keeps assets and liquidity available to cover expenses of doing business, the same way a landlord needs to use some rent money to clean up after a bad tenant, it's part of their business model. If a business thought these machines would just live there forever and magically go away when they aren't making money anymore, that's their fault.
Most likely, they simply thought the machines would live long enough to be the next guy's problem.