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Posted by Ken Maltby on 05/04/07 21:25
"Smarty" <nobody@nobody.com> wrote in message
news:hb-dnQIFNfATAqbbnZ2dnUVZ_qOpnZ2d@adelphia.com...
> Hong Kong - Lucky and Flo, the Motion Picture Association's DVD-sniffing
> black
> Labrador retrievers, today dealt another blow to Malaysian movie pirates,
> leading
> investigators to secret storage compartments containing nearly 150,000
> pirated
> movie DVDs.
>
> In a search of two retail outlets suspected of selling pirated movie DVDs
> in the
> Petaling Jaya district of Kuala Lumpur, 17 officers from Malaysia's
> Ministry of
> Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (MDTCA) were unable to discover any
> contraband until Lucky and Flo detected hidden compartments packed with
> pirated DVDs ready for wholesale distribution. The MDTCA officers arrested
> two
> men and seized nearly 150,000 seized discs with an estimated street value
> of
> US$430,000.
>
> On March 20, Lucky and Flo led a raid in Johor Bahru that yielded six
> arrests and
> the seizure around one million pirated optical discs with a street value
> of around
> US$2.86 million.
>
> "Today's raid, during which Lucky and Flo uncovered secret compartments
> that
> human investigators had missed, reconfirmed that DVD-sniffing dogs can
> provide
> tremendous support to law enforcement authorities," said Mike Ellis,
> Senior Vice
> President and Regional Director, Asia-Pacific for the Motion Picture
> Association.
>
> Lucky and Flo, the world's first dogs trained to find optical discs in
> packages and
> containers used by pirate syndicates for smuggling stolen movies around
> the
> world, are in Malaysia spearheading "Operation Double Trouble", launched
> last
> week in Kuala Lumpur.
>
> During the month-long operation, the dogs are working alongside
> enforcement
> officers in Kuala Lumpur, Johor Baru and Penang, as well as at border
> crossings,
> sniffing out DVDs hidden at storage centers as well as in packages bound
> for
> export. The operation is in part aimed at permitting the officers to
> thoroughly
> evaluate the effectiveness of canine anti-piracy investigators as the
> MDTCA
> considers the feasibility of establishing a dog unit within its
> Enforcement Division.
>
> In 2004, the MPA undertook a feasibility study to determine whether dogs
> could
> be trained to detect polycarbonate and other chemicals used in optical
> discs. A
> trainer in Northern Ireland known for training dogs to locate and identify
> bombs
> trained Lucky and Flo to find optical discs in large and small packages
> and
> containers.
>
> After eight months of training, Lucky and Flo undertook their first major
> live test,
> working with H.M. Revenue and Customs and FedEx at Stansted Airport in the
> United Kingdom. They were immediately successful in identifying packages
> containing DVDs and detecting even the smallest amount of product in very
> large
> containers.
>
> http://www.mpaa.org/press_releases/malaysiadogsapril2rel.pdf
>
>
Great, I wish them luck. The real pirates, the ones distributing
the copied then mass produced DVDs are the proper targets for
the MPAA. They should realize that all this copy protection that
they put on their DVDs does nothing to stop the pirates, and just
limits the usefulness of their products. Actions like the efforts of
these dogs are a better and more productive approach than any
copy protection scheme.
Luck;
Ken
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