MPAA Trains Dogs to Sniff Pirated DVDs

[Guest]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1630570/posts

[Shinigami-Sama]

so how do they tell if it is a legit dvd backup you made?

I also like the sugesstion of that we DDOS them to giving up :)

[Zarxrax]

This sounds interesting, but there was a line in the article that really confused me.

"But the dogs can't distinguish between pirated discs and genuine ones."

I thought the whole point of this article was that they COULD smell the pirated discs? If they cant, then... well what is this article even talking about?

[Shinigami-Sama]

maybe they assume that all disk are 'pirated' disks?
sounds like the mpaa to me

but what worries me more is the fact that fedex let a private comany screw with their packages

[laserfan]

It's simple--the dogs are being trained to detect shipments/carryons of large quantities of discs, which would then be inspected to determine if they are copies or not.

I stupidly managed to order an HBO set on eBay that ultimately came from China, via Canada. Probably easier to get the bootlegs past Canadian inspectors, then they were shipped onesey-twosey to unsuspecting folks like me. Most ebayers were fooled by the copies, some thought they looked like copies but didn't care, still others (like me) were able to inspect the discs on a computer and see that the copy-protection had been broken on them. They were pretty good-looking copies, but I can never sell them again, and being that they are on burnable discs who knows how long they will last. This Chinese ebayer sold $10,000 worth of discs this way until he disappeared (I dunno if ebay shut him down or if he moved-on to another "handle").

I for one hope they catch the bastards!

[setarip_old]

I thought the whole point of this article was that they COULD smell the pirated discs? If they cant, then... well what is this article even talking about?The test was performed at a UK CUstoms facility - meaning that only IMPORTED goods were being inspected.

Other than from legitimate, licensed overseas distributors, there probably is no (or, at best, extremely limited) legitimate reason for large volume shipment of DVDs to be arriving from overseas...

[Zarxrax]

Other than from legitimate, licensed overseas distributors, there probably is no (or, at best, extremely limited) legitimate reason for large volume shipment of DVDs to be arriving from overseas... [/Color]

Ah, makes sense now. I thought they had trained the dogs to sniff out the type of dye that would be on recordable discs.

[HardwareGeek]

Story is also here: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=1944531&page=1

[adam]

Customs already randomly searches packages for pirated goods, and any large shipment of anything is already either going to be inventoried or is going to be sent from/to an importer/exporter on record who must undergo frequent audits. These dogs are just going to be used to make the random searches a little less random. Its not that any DVD found is assumed to be pirated, and its not that the dogs are trying to sniff out pirated DVDs versus legitimate ones, its that there is no point searching a package for pirated DVDs if there are no DVDs in it at all. The dogs narrow the search to only packages with DVDs (actually they would be sniffing for drugs in the process too) and then they can open the package and verify its contents the same way they always do.

Also like I suggested above, frequent shippers are not going to be affected. A company like Amazon.com is not going to have every DVD it ships opened, and actually their packages mostly will not even be sniffed by the dogs. Their importers and exporters are on record and audited regularly. If the audits are clean their everyday packages (shipments to customers) go mostly unchecked by Customs.

Shinigami-Sama: Its NOT a private company that is going to be searching the packages its US customs which will be doing it and they already do search Fed-Ex's packages. The MPAA is just working in conjunction with the Customs office in this test to show that dogs can be trained for this.

I personally don't see a problem with the program. Dogs are already used to sniff drugs. If they could be trained to sniff DVDs too then that would probably just limit the number of total packages that would have to be randomly searched.

[Shinigami-Sama]

hmmm, I see what you mean now, either way I dont realy like how they're going about this, but as long as the MPAA isn't in the reins its not so bad.

[Mug Funky]

interesting. a guy from work posted this a few days ago.

i feel bad for the dogs - sniffing that much plastic can't do them good (you know "new DVD spindle" smell?).

there probably is no (or, at best, extremely limited) legitimate reason for large volume shipment of DVDs to be arriving from overseas...

by and large, no, but sometimes large runs of discs are replicated overseas, often in areas that are known for piracy, too (like Singapore). but usually there's enough local replicators that it's not needed. however, sometimes it's cheaper or quicker, or higher quality to use a specific overseas plant. big stuff almost always goes thorough customs anyway, at least if there's a competent system in place. sniffer dogs and the like seem like they'd only slow down legit operators, because a container-load of discs on spindles will look no different if it's legit or pirated.

...might lead to some drug busts though :)