The cold war on piracy seems to be getting just a tad warmer. In general, the copyright wars have generally maintained the status quo of verbal exchanges, civil actions, plant raids, criminal arrests and the occasional conviction. These generally were peaceful affairs, however the physical piracy war was brought up a notch as Malaysia's New Strait Times has reported that criminal syndicates have put a bounty on pirate sniffer dogs Lucky and Flo.

Lucky and Flo, two black Labradors, were introduced by the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) back in September of 2006. They were touted as their new weapon on the war against physical piracy, as the two dogs were trained to sniff out pirated optical discs - specifically DVDs.

“Lucky and Flo have helped us prove that if we think outside of the box, we can find new and interesting ways to assist law enforcement and Customs officials around the world to stop illegal shipments of counterfeit DVDs from making their way across borders,” said Dan Glickman, Chairman and CEO of the MPAA. “These two animals are armed with an amazing scent that can help us in our fight against optical disc piracy.”

The two optical disc sniffing dogs appear to have been generating an interest in Asia, where physical piracy is a major concern to the movie industry. If there was any question to the dog's credentials or capabilities, they were readily dashed on March 21, when the canines sniffed out over 1 million pirated optical dics in Malaysia.

"Thirty officers from Malaysia’s Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (MDTCA), led by Lucky and Flo and accompanied by additional two-legged Motion Picture Association (MPA) representatives, raided a building in Johor Bahru, arresting six people and seizing what MDTCA authorities estimate was around one million pirated optical discs with a street value of around US $2.86 million, as well as 500,000 inlay cards and 90 optical disc burners"

One day after the successful raid, the syndicate in charge of the operation apparently is not very pleased at the loss of nearly 3 million dollars and the termination of an otherwise productive operation. According to an MPAA press release, Lucky and Flo were responsible for pointing the raid in the correct direction. Otherwise, enforcement offers may not have found the optical cache. With such an effective tool in the movie industry's arsenal, physical pirates are looking to neutralize this advantage.

"Following the successful raid at a shopping complex in Johor Baru on Tuesday, sources informed the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs that syndicate members are looking for the dogs," the ministry’s enforcement assistant director, Firdaus Zakaria, said yesterday.

The Malaysian government is taking the threat seriously, and has taken steps to protect the dogs.

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File-Sharing/P2P Related :: International

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