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Malaysian Dogs to Sniff DVD Piracy into Oblivion
Malaysiadoesn抰 have the best reputation when it comes to respectingintellectual property rights, and the authorities are trying to takemeasures to change that. Two male Labradors, specially trained to sniffout the chemicals used in DVD production, have been brought from Northern Ireland and will become the world抯 first permanentcanine national anti-piracy unit, according to a report from theAssociated Press.
Paddy and Manny, by their names, will go into action next month, andwill be used to find hidden caches of discs in special raids, accordingto Malaysia抯 Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs. Whilethey can抰 tell the difference between legit DVDs and pirated ones,they will be most useful when suspicions are being floated around.
The idea of the squad was given to the Malaysian authorities by thevisit of a similar unit from the U.S. Motion Pictures Association lastyear, when in only six months the dogs managed to point authorities tofinding 1.6 million pirated DVDs and other optical discs and equipmentworth $6 million, as Mohhamad Roslan Mahayuddin, the ministry抯enforcement director, told AP reporters on Monday.
Paddy and Manny have been bought and trained for about $24,000, by theMPAA, and were donated to the Malaysian Force due to the fact thatdiscs originating from the Asian country are now found less abroad: "Weare not seeing Malaysian products appear all over the world like weused to so it's more now of a domestic problem. And the dogs willcertainly help the domestic problem," Mike Ellis, the Association抯Asia-Pacific director said.
The two Labradors have already been considered as targets by thepirates, as the previous pair was placed a $29,000 bounty on, butMohammad Roslan has assured the MPAA that he will go out of his way inassuring that the new dogs are safe.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Malaysian-Dogs-to-Sniff-DVD-Piracy-into-Oblivion-80095.shtml
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