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MPAA training Dogs to Sniff Out DVDs
LandownEyes writes "The dogs, Lucky and Flo, faced their first test at the FedEx UK hub at Stansted Airport.
"FedEx was glad to assist in Lucky and Flo's first live test in a working situation. They were amazingly successful at identifying packages containing DVDs, which were opened and checked by HM Customs' representatives. While all were legitimate shipments on the day, our message to anyone thinking about shipping counterfeit DVDs through the FedEx network is simple: you're going to get caught."
Kinda makes me thing twice about shipping anything through FedEX. Seriously, this is like training drug dogs to find plastic bags."
So what happens when they find that homemade video a friend is sending you from their trip overseas?
Unless they decide to actually play every DVD, or open the packaging to see what inside a case, how are they going to know?
All a pirate would have to do is ship them in unmarked cases, or ones marked "Vacation video" and mail them to the US, where their partner opens them up and puts them in the final packing material.
Sounds like a giant waste of time to me. And for what? DVD's. We can't even be bothered to search all of the crates coming into our ports, but hell, the MPAA has enough time and money to look for fake fucking DVD's.
Morons.
By what authority does the MPAA have to even do this? They are a PRESSURE GROUP, not government. They are NOT THE COPS, they are NOT federal agents.
Or is this just another example of the corporations saying "JUMP!" and the government saying "how high?"
FedEx was glad to help out on the test, I'm sure, but there's no way FedEx is going to let these dogs sniff every package.
I worked at a FedEx sort facility as a package handler for a few months, and I'll tell you right now, those packages sit still for a total of 5 seconds once those trailers are opened. They go from the trailer to the belt, to the package handler, to the drivers, in the truck and out the door. No drivers are going to stand there and let a dog sniff out every package for a potential DVDs, especially if they have an appointment delivery to keep.
I can remember mornings when trailers were late in getting to the terminal by five minutes and those drivers were whining so much it wasn't even funny. Now, I suppose they could be sniffed at some other point, but any delay will smear FedEx's "The World on Time" image. They're not going to be willing to do that, nor any other shipping company.
Besides, if they do cooperate, just ship it through the mail, or UPS, or DHL.
Not that I condone in any way the illegal distribution of copied movies.
Not that I condone the invasion of privacy either.
It's just a lose-lose situation all around.
more so then their bullying of their actual customers is their crippling of the user experience. My favorites include:
-Buying a CD and finding the Security tag glued to the paper insert such that if I were to remove it it would ruin the picture
-Buying a DVD, popping it in and watching the mandatory "you wouldn't steal a car" anti-piracy add. You know the one that gets stripped out when they make pirate releases so the only person who sees it are the paying customers.
-Paying $30-$50 for a special edition DVD or box set and being forced to sit through 15minutes of advertisements before I can watch the film
-Paying $25 for an SACD because of it's "higher quality" and hearing a constant hum in the background caused intentionally by their anti-piracy measures (because people who rip MP3s really care about the higher bit-rate version of the disc, and doesn't intentionally ruining the quality defeat the purpose of a higher quality format? They wonder why more people aren' adopting it)
I can't wait to pay $600-$800 for an HD-DVD player, and $30 per disc only to have my resolution crippled because the HDTV I bought last year doesn't feature the latest Anti-Piracy tech... I can't wait for my Windows OS to do the same thing because I don't want to upgrade my expensive and recently bought hardware either.
When will they realize that pirates will get the content no matter what measures are in place. there are well documented ways to easily thwart everything I've mentioned above. In the end all it does is cripple the end user experience.
The MPAA and RIAA have plenty of numbers that show how much they think they're loosing to piracy but do they have any numbers that show these ridiculous measures actually helping?
Collector's Edition
6.1 billion loss
:)
I knew my giganews subscription was going to a good cause
honestly though... it's really because they are just whining about everyone else making money with Itunes and other digital delivery services. Working at a electronics store, I never have anyone come up to me and ask, "where do I find the cd-players?". to be honest, I can't remember a single sale where a cd-player was involved. BTW, I sell about 10 or more MP3 players each day.
I should send a box of loose blank DVD's with 'Screw you MPAA' written on them for their next photo-op on finding dvd's.
THE WORLD IS GOING TO END!!!! eventually.
Why not link to some credible sources, Mr. Anonymous? Sure, everybody has a friend who was fucked over because the cops bent or broke some law, but unless you can come up with some hard, documented evidence, your assertions here are baseless.