MPAA DVD sniffer dogs score!
p2pnet.net news:- Lucky and Flo are on a roll! They’ve been producing scads of inks and bytes and now they’ve finally scored!
Malaysian authorities suspected counterfeit movie discs were stashed in an office unit in southern Johor state. So instead of sending regular officers in to search the premises, they turned the two black labs loose and Lo! – they, “detected the discs behind locked doors, which officials broke open with crowbars,” Associated Press has Fahmi Kassim, the Domestic Trade Ministry’s enforcement chief in the area, saying.
The dogs began work in Malaysia on March 13, “sniffing out shipments at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport,” says AP. “The Johor operation was the first time they had worked in another area, said Neil Gane, the MPAA’s Singapore-based senior director of operations.”
Lucky and Flo have also been separately claimed in other sniffing ‘firsts’ by FACT’s Raymond Leinster, the MPAA’s Mike Ellis, and Scott Butler, president of the Arab Anti-piracy Union.
Trained to detect chemicals used to make discs, neither Lucky nor Flo can tell the difference between real and pirated DVDs. Their investigations could therefore cause genuine distributors, who comprise the vast majority, a great deal of trouble if the dogs are told ‘Find’ without being taken to an area where counterfeits are likely to be found.
However, the pair consistently generate terrific headlines for Hollywood’s MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) which simultaneously claims its owners, Time Warner, Viacom, Fox, Sony, NBC Universal and Disney, are being devastated by ‘pirates’ and file sharers, and reports “all-time high” revenues to the tune of of $25.8 billion.
Also See:
inks and bytes – Lucky and Flo, back again, March 14, 2007
Associated Press – 2 Sniffer Dogs, on Loan From the MPAA, Help Malaysian Officials Find Bootleg DVDs, CDs, March 20, 2007
all-time high – Hollywood reports record revenues, March 6, 2007
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
March 20th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
Well, first of all they had prior knowledge of illicit goods.
Second, the police are still going to manually search the entire premise for more illicit material.
So, what exactly was the purpose of the dogs. How much did/do these dogs cost? Meanwhile, the Motion picture industry cuts 10,000 jobs blaming it on piracy. I can see their reasoning now.
“Piracy is hurting us so badly, that we will turn the income from 10,000 movie workers into two super trained sniffing dogs to finally complete and win this battle on piracy. You can run, but I will sniff your crotch!” – Glickman
I guess two dumb dogs are more important than a movie industry workers life. Maybe the dogs have more common sense than anyone.
March 20th, 2007 at 11:37 pm
You’re asking the MuzakBigBiz to make sense? Come on, they don’t know what the word means. I think someone should send them a ClueBrick.
http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20070305
March 21st, 2007 at 4:53 am
“The dogs began work in Malaysia on March 13, “sniffing out shipments at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport,”
This raises several issues:
- Is there a labor shrtage in Malaysia so as to make imported labor necessary?
- Do the dogs have a resident immigration status as to allow them to work in Malaysian?
- Does the airport worker union allow non union members to do their work?
- Are the dogs union members?
- Are the dogs temporary workers working for Kelly?
- Do the dogs have a Malaysian social security number?
- Are the dogs paid the legal minimum salary or the union scale?
- If the dog’s salary is paid in food only, is that in accordance with the airport workers union contract?
- Can anyone name a Malaysian made movie? If not, why is Malaysia so interested is stopping piracy?
- Are the dogs there to detect imports, or exports?
- Can the dog distinguish public domain movies on dvds?
- Does the airport have sanitary facilities for its non human workers, or are the non human workers treaed like dogs?
- What is AFL-CIO’s position on dogs replacing workers?
rv