Anti-Piracy Dog Uncovers Huge Cache of Discs

sgt scrub writes "I've never thought about sniffing my CDs before buying them but that is all about to change. According to this Yahoo! news article, dogs can be trained to tell the difference between a legit copy of a DVD and one from those pesky pirates. From the article, 'A DVD-sniffing anti-piracy dog named Paddy has uncovered a huge cache of 35,000 discs in Malaysian warehouses, many destined for export to Singapore, industry officials said on Wednesday. Paddy was given to Malaysia by the MPA to help close down piracy syndicates, which churn out vast quantities of illegal DVDs. The dog is specially trained to detect chemicals in the discs.'" We ran a story about anti-piracy dogs being trained in Ireland a few years ago.

Comments

Dear Slashdot,

[Anonymous Coward]

+----------+
| FIX YOUR |
|  FUCKIN' |
|   CODE   |
+----------+
    |  |
    |  |
  .\|.||/..

Re:Dear Slashdot,

[russlar]

+1

Re:Dear Slashdot,

[jra]

Could you vague that up for us?

(Or would I understand if I hung out here more, to the exclusion of an actual life?)

Re:Dear Slashdot,

[eleuthero]

I have had no trouble running FF3 but then, it is running without any add-ons (work comp)

Re:And the blind?

[Scragglykat]

Now the blind won't have to worry so much about being sold pirated copies of their favorite movi... oh... nevermind.

Re:And the blind?

[Anonymous Coward]

False dilemma. We can do both.

Steak.

[Anonymous Coward]

I plan to coat all of my real DVD's in steak, that should distract 'em!

Re:Steak.

[Fotograf]

I plan to coat all of my real DVD's in steak, that should attract 'em! Oh wait. Nvm. here fixed for ya

Re:And the blind?

[Farmer Tim]

instead of training dogs to help guide handicapped people

They are; the heads of organisations like the MPA clearly have learning difficulties.

So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[Joe The Dragon]

So the dog go off on any dvd-r so it will go off even on blank disks?

How about just data only disks with no movies on them?

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[cjfs]

How about just data only disks with no movies on them?

Well, the title says "Anti-Piracy Dog" so it must have a means of smelling the contents of the disk. Given most movies lately, I don't envy it.

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[dgatwood]

I doubt there's any difference in the type of polycarbonate used for pirated DVDs versus legitimate ones.... Chances are, they are trained to smell a significant concentration of any optical media in a single place. If they smell a trace of polycarbonate, e.g. a dozen DVDs, that's not suspicious. If they smell 35,000 of the things and the warehouse isn't a disc manufacturing company, a computer company, or a computer/movie/music store, such a high concentration of media in one place screams "professional pirates"....

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[rolfwind]

So the dog go off on any dvd-r so it will go off even on blank disks?

How about just data only disks with no movies on them?

It wouldn't surprise me that "burned" DVD-R have a slightly different smell than a normal one, something that a dog can detect.

OTOH, I would think big time pirate would just professionally "press" a dvd rather than burning them? No clue.

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[spun]

I was going to post this exact thing, but I thought, what the heck? It's so obvious, someone must have beaten me too it. I'm surprised I had to scroll down this far to find common sense. And before you ask, no, I'm not new here.

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[MoonBuggy]

That sounds like the most plausible option. If you read the BBC article from the older story it's very clear that they couldn't tell the difference between burned and pressed discs (which I found a little surprising, actually, with all the chemicals in the dye of DVD-Rs) and even if they have improved on their training since then, I wouldn't expect 35,000 discs to be burned anyway.

Like you said, I'm assuming they went sniffing around the warehouse marked "Completely Legal Food Co." and found that the crates of bananas smelled like a whole lot of polycarbonate.

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[Farmer Tim]

My guess is that it isn't the polycarbonate (which is common enough that the dogs would be in a constant frenzy), but rather the chemicals used in the dyes in burnable media (cyanide compounds, IIRC) which are aren't present in stamped media.

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[nabsltd]

If they smell 35,000 of the things and the warehouse isn't a disc manufacturing company, a computer company, or a computer/movie/music store, such a high concentration of media in one place screams "professional pirates"

The last place I worked, we had an 8-tray DVD duplicator/printer, and bought blank disks in palette loads, and we weren't any of the types of companies that you listed, although we did use computers a lot (as do most places these days).

We used them entirely for distributing content that either we had personally created or that clients gave us the rights to duplicate for them. Some of the content was commecials that you've probably seen on TV, and some was computer programs written in-house.

Maybe today we'd go with a commercial duplicator, but back then you could get a 100 copy run at all (or at least not for less than extortionate prices).

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[gringofrijolero]

That would be Triumph the Critic-Dog deciding which one of your disks are ready to poop on.

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[Moryath]

As opposed to me buying a shipment of, say, 500 Taiyo Yuden DVD+r's so that I'm set for my monthly backup regimen?

Please.

"We got a dog that smells something that we usually associate with the smell of something that might be in some way be used to commit a crime."

Bullshit. You got the same quality dog as the fucking "drug sniffing" dog that tore apart my luggage in O'Hare because I'd packed (nicely sealed up and everything) a box of frozen bratwurst with a 24-hour gelpack block to bring home as a gift to my roommate. I suppose I COULD be meaning to bludgeon him to death with frozen bratwurst, but I really doubt it.

This sort of "search" crap is beyond stupid. Either search something, or don't, but don't pretend that your "search dog", who in his/her downtime has hobbies that include sniffing and licking his/her own genitalia, is justification for doing so.

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[Mister Whirly]

They are trained to smell Sharpie pen ink. So don't label your DVD rips!

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[Red Flayer]

Wait, so if it's an anti-piracy dog, can it go "Arrrf"?

Does it like sniffing arrrses like most dogs?

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[SnarfQuest]

It's the parrot crap they smell. It has nothing to do with the actual disks. They just don't want the pirates to know, so that they won't de-parrot the disks.

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[syousef]

I don't know about that. Perhaps the dog's just trained to smell permanent marker. Some of those fake DVDs aren't all that high quality ;-)

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[bitt3n]

I've heard that cocaine traffickers screw with drug dogs using capsicum powder. maybe the same thing would work here using copies of Gigli.

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[dgatwood]

Read that number again. There were 35,000 discs. Nobody buys 35,000 DVD-Rs for backups, or at least nobody remotely sane....

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[dgatwood]

A lot of mass-pirated discs are stamped media. Sniffing for DVD-Rs might catch the small-time pirates---maybe even the medium ones---but those folks aren't likely to be storing tens of thousands of discs for sale; they're likely burning a few dozen copies of each title per week in the back room of their home or business. If you're talking about a cache of 35,000 discs, I suspect you're almost certainly well into the stamped media large-scale commercial pirate territory.

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[Opportunist]

So when a big time counterfeiter presses his DVD (they do) and the dog can sniff out DVD-Rs, who is the target of that operations?

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[Hognoxious]

You got the same quality dog as the fucking "drug sniffing" dog that tore apart my luggage in O'Hare

If the dog doesn't bark nothing happens. If the dog barks and there is something, he gets a reward. If the dog barks and there isn't something, he doesn't get his bastard balls hit repeatedly with a bamboo stick.

You don't have to be John Nash to predict what muttley's going to do.

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[conspirator57]

All this raises the question: Does the training endanger the dogs? Plastic and thin film processing chemicals are usually carcinogenic. Can we get these MAFIAA goons prosecuted for animal cruelty?

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[Chris Burke]

This sort of "search" crap is beyond stupid. Either search something, or don't, but don't pretend that your "search dog", who in his/her downtime has hobbies that include sniffing and licking his/her own genitalia, is justification for doing so.

Look I get what you're saying and I agree with your point, but that's no reason to hate on some perfectly fine hobbies. They aren't my hobbies, though they would be if I was more flexible. And if the police officer who conducted the search with a legitimate warrant happens to have an auto-fellatio hobby, well, I just don't see how that affects their ability to perform their job! If anything they'd be less uptight...

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[Anonymous Coward]

Now all we need to do is to train dogs to sniff data packets on the network and piracy will be gone!!

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[sveard]

Redundancy is an import, perhaps even the most important, aspect of backups!

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[hurfy]

sigh

"such a high concentration of media in one place screams "professional pirates"...."

That and the fact that at least some of the titles are not even out on DVD yet might be another clue....

And despite our summary (if jumping to conclusions was an olympic sport...every country would be trying to recruit us...) the Yahoo article does not indicate if the dog can tell a burned DVD from a pressed one. Look at the shipping papers... go from there. Not exactly complicated at that point even for a lowly cop.

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[HTH NE1]

They could also be keying off the scent of the method of labeling the disks. There are after all many ways to do it, and I've seen some (presumably) legitimate disks that looked pretty amateurish in their printing and other DVD-Rs that had beautiful labeling.

It could even be that the inks have absorbed some airborne cocaine during the manufacturing process, or some piracy operation has an owner that likes to use the blood of his enemies as a paint thickener.

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[syousef]

Well we can't get them prosecuted for human cruelty, so I don't like your chances.

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[Ihmhi]

To be fair, dogs are used to sniffing around huge piles of shit anyway.

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[Anonymous Coward]

So now it's a crime to be unusual or even insane (not talking about the homicidal sort)? If I want to make 35,000 copies of something and I haven't distributed it and I own the original should I be charged with a crime. You know pulling that "nobody needs X, Y, or Z" is why tech policy around the globe is ass backwards and keeps us back as a society. This piracy sniffing dog is just an excuse to circumvent competent police work. Say, police pick their target the day prior and then just preps the dog on their little witch hunt to save the children or prevent terrorism. Right...

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[Asic Eng]

The dog probably won't sniff DVD-Rs - for larger scale copying you would injection mold the foil and encase it with polycarbonate plastic. According to this: http://www.replication.com/cd-dvd-copying.php it would become more economical to do that once you reach 500 or more copies. The glue probably smells differently, and that's likely what the dog reacts to.

They could let the dog check various shipments, and when it finds one which smells like DVDs - but doesn't declare that on the shipping papers, they would have a closer look.

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[HTH NE1]

35,000 DVD-Rs would be used up in one year by someone making complete weekly backups of 3.16 TB of data. That could be 16 workstations each having 200 GB to back up. And that's without any additional redundancy.

10,080 minutes in a week, 672.34 disks a week, that's about 15 minutes per disk going 24/7.

How much per disk in bulk is 35,000 DVD-Rs (I assume less than 4.7 cents per disk), and can you get something else of equivalent or greater storage capacity in bulk at a cheaper price per GB (tapes, hard drives)?

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[arose]

I doubt there's any difference in the type of polycarbonate used for pirated DVDs versus legitimate ones.... Chances are, they are trained to smell a significant concentration of any optical media in a single place.

Chances are they are just providing an excuse for a warrant.

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[whoever57]

They could also be keying off the scent of the method of labeling the disks.

You are over-thinking the problem. It's much simpler -- they search for outgoing containers/boxes/whatever that contain DVDs. When they find them, they check the manifest for that shipment. If the DVDs are not listed on the manifest -- they are probably illegally copied DVDs.

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[westlake]

And before you ask, no, I'm not new here.

1352. You know he hasn't read the RTFA. You know he hasn't read the summary. The comments. Now you know - from someone who should know - that the true Slashdotter doesn't even know the elders hereabouts! The truly primal geeks.

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[complete loony]

I dunno, dogs have been trained to smell cancer. They might be able to smell the difference in the plastic of the disc or the printing if you gave them enough training. My guess is they gave the dogs plenty of examples of the legit discs and pirate discs they were trying to distinguish between. Who knows which smell they used to distinguish between them.

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[SkyDude]

You beat me to the punch, so thank you for your insightful comment.

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[meerling]

I know of 2 drug dogs the USAF had that were 'retired' because of false positives.

One was a chocoholic and would alert on anything that had chocolate.

The other was a lunchgut that would alert on anything with food when he got hungry.

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[ctmurray]

I think that bratwurst is doggie cocaine (at least judging my dog's response and your post).

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[DirtyCanuck]

"floppy disks"

WTF is that? What the nursing home uses as coasters instead of Cd's?

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[DirtyCanuck]

I knew one that would give "false positives" anytime the cop/instructor would give a signal. That way even if the dog doesn't actually sniff anything you are fair game for a warrant less search. Wait I know I few....

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[TheLink]

Crime to be insane? If you're insane some countries lock you up for longer - you don't actually have a "release date". You only get out if someone decides you're sane enough...

Secondly it's extremely rare to be the sort of insane where:
1) You make 35000 copies of DVDs for the purpose of keeping them.
2) You retain the ability, time and resources to do 1)
3) You keep them in a warehouse instead of a better controlled environment.

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[TheLink]

You're ignoring the complete system though - if a dog stops performing properly, the handlers stop using the dog.

Also, most breeds of dogs have been bred for generations to be "useful to humans", that coupled with decent training means that the handler saying "bad dog!" is usually punishment enough.

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[Anachragnome]

Is anyone else besides me beginning to get the feeling that someone has figured out that if you teach a dog to go to where you direct it, with subtle, barely perceptible signals only noticeable by a dog, and just pretend that the dog did it on their own, that nobody ever questions that?

Is this just another way around a search warrant?

IANAL (obviously!), so can someone that IS please clue us in? Does a DOG need a search warrant, and if not, WHY not? How is evidence that is found by a dog, but not under a search warrant, viewed by courts? Is it admissible?

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[Anonymous Coward]

It's the parrot crap they smell. It has nothing to do with the actual disks. They just don't want the pirates to know, so that they won't de-parrot the disks.

The discs wont work without the parrot-y bits.

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[daveime]

After what MediaSentry were allowed to get away with, a dog's testimony is possibly more plausible.

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[eastlight_jim]

I know exactly what you mean. There's a certain smell to burned media after the drive's got warm burning a few disks. It's quite a unique smell and certainly unique enough to train a dog on. I do take the point made by a sibling about the scale of professional piracy and the liklehood of stamped media but in the case of 35,000 disks, this could be done on 10 10-disk duplicators in a month at 5 minutes a disk. Maybe possible...

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[legojenn]

If these dogs are like my dogs, they would be drooling at the thought of it.

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[itsdapead]

Chances are, they are trained to smell a significant concentration of any optical media in a single place.

...or trained to sniff and bark at anybody, in response to a subtle command, that their handler fancied searching.

Hey, its what I'd do!

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[kaatochacha]

The dogs smell the plastic used in the pressed discs. They're mostly used to find DVDs in places where no DVDs should be.

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r

[Farmer Tim]

Yes, its possible for humans to smell burned DVDs, but that's not the point. I'm thinking of the probable nature of the piracy operation, and why the MPA would consider a dog useful.

Consider the disadvantages of a single large press: expensive, long set up time, needs skilled operators to run, raw materials only come from a limited number of sources which makes it easy to trace, and the whole thing can be shut down with one bust. Plus, DVD presses don't become profitable until you're pressing millions of discs, and disposing of that many discs at a wholesale level is a good way of drawing attention to yourself. None of this is good if you're running an illegal operation.

On the other hand, let's say you have a syndicate of small shops, each with a room of replicator machines. Paying people to sit and feed them is cheap at Malaysian rates, almost anyone can do it, smaller orders of blank DVDs are perfectly normal and hard to trace, and if one shop gets busted it looks like a small-time racket, the rest of the operation goes on regardless without losing the entire investment. 20 shops with 10x10 disk replicators each easily could churn out 1000 DVDs to order within 6 hours; send someone round on a scooter to collect the discs and hand over the (untraceable) cash, and you've got a near perfect, just-in-time, low risk operation.

Now, bear in mind that the article doesn't say its a single batch of 35,000 of a single title (which I'd agree would be only realistically possible with a press). It says "several caches" of numerous titles totalling 35,000; in other words a few thousand of each, which is easily done with a distributed syndicate like I described. If that's what the MPA are up against, a dog that can sniff out the cyanide compounds in burned media makes perfect sense.

Smells like a made up story...

[Anonymous Coward]

...to scare the kids.

Re:Smells like a made up story...

[joggle]

Since when are kids stashing 35,000 pirated DVDs in warehouses?

Seriously, even if I was a kid pirating DVDs this wouldn't scare me at all. Why the heck would it?

Re:Smells like a made up story...

[dotgain]

OT: Can a point go "Whoosh!", like a Joke? If not, how do we describe a point that has attained high velocity and elevation with respect to the observer?

Re:Smells like a made up story...

[EdIII]

I laughed my ass off. Piracy does not have a smell. The only thing that dog could be smelling is the difference between a recordable CD/DVD and a "pressed" CD/DVD. Maybe the labels. That's it. All of which is perfectly legal, and has many, many, many legal instances of its use.

There is no chemical associated with Piracy :)

That dog would just as easily start barking at a Fry's electronics, as it would a couple that put their baby pictures onto DVD, and just as it would some evil pirate burning his illicit stash of "stolen" 1's and 0's.

But hey, let's throw logic and common sense out the window!!

The MPAA has Digital Pirate Booty sniffing dogs! Don't get through the airports now with your illegally obtained MP3's burned to CD's! The Jig is UP!

LOL.

So....

[Darkness404]

So apparently recording agencies are able to do anything except record good music. They can bribe judges, hire lawyers, buy congress, complain, make commercials and now train dogs. You would think that with all this money they could come up with a working business model other then abusing the legal system.

Re:So....

[Anonymous Coward]

If someone is profiting from selling 35,000 copies of something you put together to sell youself, how is it abuse of the legal system to try to stop them?

Re:So....

[i kan reed]

If the problem were seriously bad music would be people be pirating it. That is the worst possible justification of piracy ever. Besides these are people selling fraudulent copies. Real album covers, real stores, real money. Their goal is to make money off of work they did not create. It's slimy and evil, and they have no sympathy from me.

Re:So....

[CastrTroy]

I'm not saying I don't have any illegitimate copies of software/movies/music, but I also don't try to pretend that having these objects is completely ok. If you don't like the way their business model is run, the only right way to protest it is to not consume the media in any way. If you pirate it, you are basically saying that the product is worth something to you, but that you don't want to pay the price they are asking for it.

Re:So....

[kaiser423]

who says that abusing the legal system isn't a viable business model? Lots do it.

Re:So....

[Darkness404]

The problem isn't "bad" music but rather "fad" music (which, indecently usually sounds horrible) artists that are "cool" today and then tomorrow you wouldn't be caught dead with their CD. Because of that, people want cheap music to fill up their iPods and CD collections. Even $.99 is too much for some people for a song they might listen to only a few times.

Sure, we can all agree that this occasion was good because they were making a profit, but how much longer till it starts targeting the average person? We used to think before the RIAA went on a suing spree that no one would ever sue for non-profit personal use of items, but the RIAA proved us wrong. Today its not an abuse of the legal system however with the record company's actions in recent years it soon will be.

Re:So....

[gstoddart]

You would think that with all this money they could come up with a working business model other then abusing the legal system.

Why would they?

As you observed, they can already "bribe judges, hire lawyers, buy congress, complain, make commercials and now train dogs" -- why change your business model when you can do all of that to prop up the one you have?

Cheers

Re:So....

[Darkness404]

Sure, the only right way to protest it is to not buy things and I usually avoid RIAA-based labels with a passion and only buy them if they are a unique band that I want to hear the style more in more artists (Such as Nightwish), I only really listen to RIAA labels on YouTube or internet radio and don't download them over P2P, that said I believe that its a fundamental right of technology to make backups and within reason to download things for non-commercial use. Sure, the current legal system disagrees but I really hope that changes in the next few years.

Yes, sometimes the content is good but you don't want to pay the price to the middleman. There are some bands that if I could I'd buy records directly from the band, I like the band but don't like the label, so I go to concerts so support the band more directly.

I also believe that the current prices are quite high on music, especially with the addition of $1.29 songs on iTunes. A better price point would be below $.50 with all songs downloadable on an album.

So in conclusion, I believe that morally you should have a right to copy and download, legally I know that you do not and I try to stay away from illegal downloading simply because its illegal but yet I do believe strongly in a right to download.

Re:So....

[fooslacker]

except record good music

The recording industry wants music that will sell. That does not necessarily mean good music.

Actually good music often sells. The problem is predicting which music is good and marketable. So instead they make poor copies of something else that once sold then try to manufacture a market around it. It's a bad business model if you have the ability to actually create something marketable and unique and you're willing to risk several busts prior to boom. If on the other hand you're trying to make ever move a monetary success and you lack the ability to produce unique works yourself and you're burdened with expensive middlemen who do little to contribute to the quality of the end product it's the model you're stuck with.

Re:So....

[Jartan]

You can hardly blame them for trying to stop people making actual physical copies for illegal resale. I'm all for bashing them for their evils but training a dog to sniff out optical media isn't exactly something from the Dr Evil pet tricks handbook.

Re:So....

[dank zappingly]

Can whoever the hell modded this comment as insightful explain the following to me:

How is this insightful? Even if the article was about music and the abuse of the legal system, wouldn't the fact that someone pirated music tend to support the idea that someone else finds value in it?

How does this comment(which seems to assume that the RIAA trained these dogs to sniff out pirated CD's) relate to an article about trained Malaysian dogs sniffing out pirated DVD's?

I understand that these views are valued highly here on slashdot, but they don't relate to the article or the discussion. I'm surprised I haven't seen any "insightful" comments complaining about Sony's rootkits yet.

Re:So....

[TheSambassador]

While the following fact doesn't justify the high prices, giving money "directly to the band" does skip paying people who worked on other aspects of the music (promoting, recording, etc.). It seems to be a trend on /. to ignore that fact, and to assume that money goes to only the RIAA and a teensy part to the artist... which really isn't true. Some bands wouldn't be known at all if it weren't for these other people.

Re:So....

[Darkness404]

That is where the internet and piracy comes in. Guess what, torrents *gasp* advertise for the band. Release a few samples on TPB and watch your popularity slowly rise. Some bands wouldn't be known if not for promotion in the days before the internet but now any band can promote *for free*. There are tons of bands that would have not survived if not for promotion due to the internet, many bands who don't fit the mold of the radio stations wouldn't have a following. About the only sort of promotion that really works well today is opening for a popular band, other than that promotion via the traditional channels are worthless. As for recording, if you send money directly to the band, they can get things recorded by paying a flat fee and all is good. Plus recording studios are going away because with a bit of an investment anyone can get decent enough recording equipment. Will it sound perfect, no. Will it work for MP3s that 95% of music listeners listen to? Yes.

Re:So....

[dontmakemethink]

With piracy as abundant as it is, a working business model to sell ice to eskimos is understandably hard to develop. If your competition was stealing your customers with illegal tactics, would you A) lower your prices and take the loss, B) close up shop and work at McDonald's, or C) rat the bastards out.

And the last thing MAFIAA-bashers should complain about is how they treat pirates that press and resell illegitimate media copies! That is absolutely undeniable theft that benefits nobody except the thieves.

Sure they've crossed the line on many occasions, but that's how all corporations fight competition on a routine basis. Cry about it all you want, neither their unscrupulous legal practices nor their ensuing unpopularity compromises their copyrights. Sooner or later you won't be able to pirate anything with any reasonable ease.

Re:So....

[TheSambassador]

Wow, you've just spit out about every argument for piracy that's been said on Slashdot into one post! Impressive.

Maybe some people do, but I doubt that The Pirate Bay is the place to go to find new music. People hear a song on a show, or maybe see a youtube clip, or maybe use tastekid or Pandora, THEN they go download the stuff they want. I wouldn't even consider pawing through the "genre" section on TPB and picking some random band... I have much more specific tastes.

There are plenty of other ways of advertising that don't give away the actual album for free, yet are still free for the band. I'm not actually arguing against piracy, but just the notion that sending money directly to the band members is somehow more "right" than buying the CD.

If a band WANTS to put up their stuff on TPB for free... that's great, and will certainly increase their popularity. But saying that pirates are the biggest reason some bands are popular doesn't seem correct. If you look at some of the bigger indie bands that have gained popularity via the internet (See Arctic Monkeys or Clap Your Hands Say Yeah), it was through blogs, myspace pages, and REVIEWS (the Pitchfork review for CYHSY certainly propelled them to new heights).

Re:So....

[pembo13]

If the problem were seriously bad music would be people be pirating it

Yes.

Re:So....

[tacarat]

They can bribe judges, hire lawyers, buy congress, complain, make commercials and now train dogs. You would think that with all this money they could come up with a working business model other then abusing the legal system.

Strangely enough, the dog training is probably the best ROI they've had. A bit of training, lifetime supply of Alpo and a handler that'll take it home at the end of the day probably worked out cheaper than a week's worth of lawyer fees. Given that they're actually stopping for-profit-piracy, as opposed to just alienating their customers, it seems like they need to look this over and reallocate their funding.

Re:So....

[Darkness404]

Maybe some people do, but I doubt that The Pirate Bay is the place to go to find new music. People hear a song on a show, or maybe see a youtube clip, or maybe use tastekid or Pandora, THEN they go download the stuff they want. I wouldn't even consider pawing through the "genre" section on TPB and picking some random band... I have much more specific tastes.

Ok, but if it was through YouTube then it was most likely a copyright offending clip so there was instant promotion through copyright infringement. Then there is the hype effect, there are some bands that people would like but they don't like the songs that are played on the radio or hyped through official channels, however if they pirate the album they might find that they really like the band and are more apt to buy a CD or go to a concert. The person would have never bought the CD if the entry price hadn't been $0.

There are plenty of other ways of advertising that don't give away the actual album for free, yet are still free for the band. I'm not actually arguing against piracy, but just the notion that sending money directly to the band members is somehow more "right" than buying the CD.

Such as?

And how isn't it more right? If I spend $20 on an album how much actually goes to the band, the people who actually made the music? Very, very, little. The publisher, promoters, etc. Had really little to do with the overall album and had little to nothing to do with the music. I listen to the music, the music was created by the band, I enjoy the music, not the production. The paint is only secondary to the painter, the canvas isn't more important than the work. Sure, you currently need canvas and paint to look at a painting but they are only secondary to the painter.

If tomorrow all the publishers, promoters, etc. vanished we would still have music because music is created by the artist. How doesn't it make sense to give money directly to the people who are actually making the music? Is it not more fair to give money to the painter than to the maker of the canvas?

Re:So....

[Chris Burke]

While the following fact doesn't justify the high prices, giving money "directly to the band" does skip paying people who worked on other aspects of the music (promoting, recording, etc.).

I'm not well versed on the topic, but it was my understanding that most of the people like sound engineers and such were paid normally by the hour/job/etc instead of commission on record sales like the band itself. Marketing might be an exception but I doubt it and uh I don't care.

Re:So....

[TheLink]

Marketing does count for a bit (lot?) [1].

And so does sifting out the gems from the "ho hum".
In the past I think the labels did do sifting for gems (and that is still a valuable service). Nowadays I think it's more about control.

[1] There are tons of very talented musicians out there who are relative unknowns. e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-g45767Tbk&feature=related

Re:So....

[TheLink]

It's my understanding that the sound engineers, marketing, promos, t-shirts, etc are paid for from the _advance_ the Label "gives" to the Band.

So if the Band goes platinum but still doesn't make enough $$$$$$ to cover all the upfront expenses, the Band could end up in debt to the Label, and so has to write a few more albums etc... Go figure.

Nowadays you can do sound engineering in a home studio for a lot cheaper. It might not be as good, but it seems millions of people find listening to compressed music over crappy earphones acceptable - and by compressed I don't just mean MP3, I mean in terms of dynamic range. Effectively about 8-10 bits of dynamic range instead of the 16 bit or 24 bit possible with modern tech.

What would help musicians and artistes would be a site (or three) that actually provide decent reviews. Reviews that can cater for the myriad tastes. For instance some people consistently like whatever a particular reviewer hates :).

So I'm thinking one could go through all the users and the different ratings and group them into different Points of Views. Then users can choose to see stuff based on any particular PoV. If they prefer a certain PoV they can use that. If they want a different PoV (buying stuff for someone else) they can select that as well. The difficulty is I can't work out an efficient algorithm to handle millions of users and PoVs.

Re:So....

[zerocool^]

No, no, no, no.

As someone who has gone to a lot of shows for a lot of independent (non-RIAA) bands, when I say "giving money directly to the band", I mean literally, I will buy a CD at a rock show, and usually the guy behind the merch table is a MEMBER OF THE BAND.

If you're buying the CD at a show, usually it's no more than $8, and often $5. The band will get their cut, as will the producer, the person who masters it, the studio, etc. You know who doesn't get their cut? The distributor and the brick and mortar store (or virtual) store that I have to go to in order to buy it.

Seriously, I steal a LOT of music. I also go to see bands live, and buy merch from the bands. I'm under no impression that the latter legally cancels out the former, just that karmically, it does.

Re:So....

[SoulRider]

That is the problem, the fact that the people who run the industry have turned it into a business model. Its not about the love of music anymore or trying to bring music to the masses, its all become an MBAs wet dream. The whole industry has become a heartless, soulless and mindless money making ponzi scheme. That is why it is incapable of producing anything of merit anymore.

Who knew...

[megamerican]

Who knew that the evil bit had a smell?

Re:Who knew...

[gv250]

Who knew that the evil bit had a smell?

Strickly speaking, the data would only have an evil bit while they are being streamed. On disc, the data has no IP header, and thus no evil bit.

I'm unaware of an evil indicator in the DVD / MPEG4 / CSS standards.

Rob

DVD smell

[gnick]

On the rare occasion that a pirated DVD winds up in my house, the smell is very distinctive pretty quickly.

Mainly because it spins once as fast as it can be ripped and then stinks of burned plastic when it comes out of the microwave.

That dog would have no problem finding my house.

Re:DVD smell

[JoeMerchant]

The paranoid in me says that the dog ins't smelling anything, just that the cops know where the counterfeiters are operating and the dog is a pretext or probable cause giving them the right to tear into the storage areas. Maybe the cops need help finding the DVDs, but if the cache is this big, probably not.

Re:And the blind?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, because clearly if the police didn't train them for this, they'd be out training dogs for the handicapped. Society obviously works this way. As a species we're incapable of doing two things at once. Troll.

my "backups"

[teac77]

Just keep the dog away from my "backups".

Re:my "backups"

[emilper]

Not funny ... I am sitting on ten years' worth of backups, would not want to have the dogs barking at my door then the police browse each CD or DVD to try find copyrighted material.

Water Marks

[mseeger]

Hi,

Has probably something to do with detecting watermarks.... At least they're fond to set new "watermarks" everywhere.

Yours, Martin

Re:And the blind?

[Anonymous Coward]

+----------+
|There are |
|plenty of |
|dogs to go|
|around. Wh|
|y not comp|
|lain about|
|the ones w|
|riting cod|
|e for Slas|
|hdot?     |
+----------+
    |  |
    |  |
  .\|.||/..

How does the dog do this?

[Bryan Gividen]

Does anyone have information on how the dog distinguishes between the CDs physically? I would assume that there is some chemical difference in the materials that the CDs are composed of. Does anyone have a link or info on this?

Re:How does the dog do this?

[sizzzzlerz]

The smell of copyright infringement just sets them off.

Re:How does the dog do this?

[Anonymous Coward]

They don't, they just smell out the CDs. So if the dog starts going crazy at a warehouse, you check to see if the warehouse is supposed to have CDs. If it the warehouse isn't, chances are you found a pirate stash. Arrrrrrr.

Re:How does the dog do this?

[Rary]

The dog is simply trained to smell chemicals used to manufacture CDs/DVDs if they're in a large enough concentration (like, say, 35,000 in a warehouse). It's up to the investigators to decide if they're counterfeit or not (which can't be too difficult if they find, say, 35,000 in a warehouse that has no records of legitimate CDs/DVDs being stored in it).

The original story has details.

Re:How does the dog do this?

[falken0905]

It's just the faint whiff of soy sauce and monosodium glutamate combined with the polycarbonate. They train the dogs in Chinese restaurants.

Re:How does the dog do this?

[Deadstick]

He could also be trained merely to "detect" pirated disks when his handler signals him. Ba-bing, ba-boom, "probable cause" for a search that's really a fishing expedition.

rj

works in countries

[nimbius]

that hop into bed with the RIAA and MPAA, but i dont see china or other countries allowing this anytime soon.

we're also assuming there is readable evidence on the disks which is not, say, encrypted by GPG.

i thought we all used torrents these days anyway?

Re:works in countries

[Darkness404]

It works for any country that has deceived its citizens with "terrorism" because we all know that all pirated movie sales go to terrorism or child pornography or some other made-up social ill that the governments dream up. Because we all know that it NEVER goes to putting food on the table or supporting the local economy or anything like that.

Re:works in countries

[Asclepius99]

So if I rob you it's fine as long as I use the money to feed my family? If the police were going around residential neighborhoods using this as an excuse to search people's houses I'd be upset. But are you really bothered by the fact that they arrested a large pirating operation that is making pirated CDs to be sold for profit. I don't really care if the pirates were trying to pay their mortgage, just like I don't care if that's why that guy broke into my house last night.

Re:works in countries

[Darkness404]

So if I rob you it's fine as long as I use the money to feed my family?

No, because I get something taken away. Now, if you could make a 1 on 1 copy of my car without damaging it, sure, I'd be happy to let you make a copy of it. Similarly if I had a infinite (as in really infinite, not just a lot) supply of money I wouldn't mind if you took from the never-ending pile of money in my front yard.

Yes, you could argue that they could possibly be taking away sales, however usually pirated stuff is sold at a huge discount (though not free) that some people who wouldn't buy it would buy it.

if the police were going around residential neighborhoods using this as an excuse to search people's houses I'd be upset. But are you really bothered by the fact that they arrested a large pirating operation that is making pirated CDs to be sold for profit.

And how do you know that might not be the next step? You know, before the RIAA/MPAA started suing individuals, whenever people made VHS copies of things or burnt a CD they always joked that they might get arrested, today in 2009 that is coming quite close to reality. Perhaps its not going into people's houses but at various "security theater" setups they might decide to search your car and take these or use it as evidence for a lawsuit.

Never mind DVD sniffing...

[murr]

If they train a dog to sniff out Bittorrent packets, I'll be truly impressed.

Re:Never mind DVD sniffing...

[BobMcD]

They did that, but then WoW released a patch and it went into a coma...

Animal Cruelty!

[MiniMike]

Some of the movies made recently reek so bad I would worry about them permanently damaging the poor dogs nose.

More reason to support piracy!

[Sponge Bath]

If everyone stops buying and producing pirated DVDs, the dogs will no longer be useful and MPA will kill them to save on dog food.

Re:More reason to support piracy!

[morgan_greywolf]

Do you really want poor Lassie to die? Lassie will DIE -- killed by the MPAA -- unless YOU start buying pirated DVDs TODAY!

This is a public service message brought to you by Asian Organized Crime for Pirated DVDs (AOCPD)

Re:More reason to support piracy!

[Opportunist]

Think of the doggies!

Re:The .. smell.. of a cd/dvd -r?

[orngjce223]

I'd noticed that the DVDs given out as school yearbooks (this was 2 or 3 years ago) smelled strongly of brown sugar. Same idea, different products.

Misleading summary

[Anonymous Coward]

The dogs don't smell the bits on the discs and determine if they spell out "Pirate!" or "Legit.". The dogs smell out optical discs and thats it. Then they take the dogs and go to a shipment/warehouse/whatever that isn't supposed to have any discs in it, and let the dog loose. If they find discs, chances are the discs are illegal in some way. And it turns out that people who smuggle pirated copies don't have them clearly marked on their manifest.

So yeah, the dogs find discs. Officials check to see if there are supposed to be discs here. If not, they probably just sniffed out illegal discs. You know, because if they were legal discs, you'd just put them on the manifest.

Re:Misleading summary

[Red Flayer]

You know, because if they were legal discs, you'd just put them on the manifest.

Unless you're trying to avoid import/export taxes, of course. In which case, they'd want to find them anyway, so they can tax them.

THAT is piracy

[erroneus]

Every time I hear of copyright infringement being called theft or piracy it just bugs me. If you think it is, you're wrong and the law backs up the "slashdot accepted definition" perfectly. The piracy that is most targetted are illegal copies FOR SALE. These are the same illegal copies that the DVD CSS does not prevent. These are the same illegal copies that never needed the DMCA.

This story illustrates precisely what piracy is when it comes to copyrighted media.

Re:THAT is piracy

[Vainglorious Coward]

Every time I hear of copyright infringement being called theft or piracy it just bugs me...The piracy that is most targetted are illegal copies FOR SALE. These are the same illegal copies that the DVD CSS does not prevent.

I still don't think it's a good idea to describe these disks as "pirated" - the terms counterfeit or bootleg are far more appropriate. Let's reserve the pejorative "piracy" for what goes on off the coast of Somalia

Let Me Guess . . .

[StefanJ]

25,000 copies of BOLT.

7,500 copies of Lady and the Tramp

2,500 copies of Reservoir Dogs

Re:Let Me Guess . . .

[jgtg32a]

One of these movies has nothing to do with dogs.

How about Homeward Bound?

Re:Let Me Guess . . .

[fluffernutter]

..or maybe 101 * 35,000 = 3,535,000 Dalmatians?

Re:Let Me Guess . . .

[BobMcD]

Or Marley and Me...

Re:Let Me Guess . . .

[JoeMerchant]

No Lassie?

time to pack discs in coffee grounds

[MoFoQ]

I guess it's time to pack discs in coffee grounds.

And for the pirates....to buy shitloads of blanks and place them all over to throw the sniffing dogs off their trail.

Re:time to pack discs in coffee grounds

[BobMcD]

http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/node/8634

I have found pot wrapped in plastic, layered next in mustard, followed by a tinfoil layer, smeared with grease, re-wrapped with more plastic and finally blanketed with scented dryer sheets and dropped into coffee grounds!

Wrong way

[greyline]

I think the MPA is just barking up the wrong tree here

Not from the onion?

[Jasper__unique_dammi]

No, the dog cannot smell the difference between copyright infringement, and regular baked CDs. (Often mistaken with piracy, despite the lack of taking ships with the use of force and the lack of raping.) This looks like they just made a premise to allow them police to search any house which happens to have written to rw cds/dvds, however, the bbc story implies that these dogs are for searching for more mass-production of cd/dvd writing.

Re:Not from the onion?

[sabt-pestnu]

lack of taking ships with the use of force and the lack of raping.

What with the all-male crews on commercial ships these days, piracy-for-ship-ransom just isn't as much fun as grabbing some overcrowded boat of economic refugees. But hey, with that kind of money, the ladies would be much more ... compliant.

Re:Next logical step

[Volante3192]

Success! We've trained this dog to sniff out bombs and counterfeit DVDs. Unfortunatly, all he can do now is detect fake copies of Uwe Boll films...

Re:And the blind?

[jgtg32a]

Are Irish Labrador good seeing eye dogs?
So breeds aren't very good at the job

Re:And the blind?

[xerxesVII]

I believe that writing such a falsehood as if it were true makes you the troll.

It's because pirates stink, duh!

[socz]

The reason the dogs can tell the difference is because pressed and burnt dvd's aren't made the same. Pressed uses less layers and different materials. Burnable uses inks that is what probably gives them away as "pirated."

That and being a pirate/biker myself (pirate by blood, my great grandfather was a Spanish pirate in Campeche!) we stink. So apparently we need to improve our hygiene! BTW have you seen Anakata lately? Now do you believe me about hygiene... :P

wish I was a dog

[fluffernutter]

Yeah I guess chasing down pesky armed robbers, rapists, and wife beaters was too hard.. Man even todays generation of DOGS has it easy.

Re:wish I was a dog

[Mister Whirly]

Re:your signature - has there really ever been a $300K fine levied against anyone for downloading a single mp3? If so where and when did it happen?
And I don't know where you live, but where I live jaywalking is a $180 fine.

Black Sharpie

[iFiLa]

All you need is a black Sharpie marker and it throws the dogs off.

i know that smell

[FudRucker]

must be the smell of rum

Not exactly

[Weezul]

Commercial music is designed for easy marketability, like most other consumer products. Examples :

(1) Apples exist in numerous different varieties all over the wold. We don't eat the best tasting ones, not by far, we eat the ones that still look red after being shipped.

(2) Potato chip companies made chips without added sugar for years because taste tests shows people preferred potato chips without sugar. But then some clever bastard noticed that people eat more chips if they add sugar. So now they ignore the taste tests, make bad tasting chips, and trust the people to buy 2x more chips.

Why should commercial music be any different? I mean, they just only care if you buy it, so they make what successfully gets people to buy it.

Mod me down, but...

[Overzeetop]

...aren't these the guys we _want_ the MPAA/RIAA to go after? These are the commercial infringers who are operating outside of the law for profit. I'll be happy to argue with you guys (i.e. - on your side) all day about personal use not being an infringing act, but this - imho - is exactly what the copyright laws are written for.

Re:Mod me down, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

...aren't these the guys we _want_ the MPAA/RIAA to go after?

What we have here is one lot of criminals going after another lot of criminals. There doesn't seem to be any particular reason to take sides.

Re:Mod me down, but...

[Co0Ps]

I agree. And I will from now on always use a "Mod me down, but...." expression in the title or beginning of my comments as reverse psychology apparently works on the mods.

Re:Mod me down, but...

[Overzeetop]

Well, that _is_ the proper protocol for stating the obvious. :-)

Re:And the blind?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ey, so why are you wasting time on Slashdot when you could be helping the blind or something equally useful?

Also, I hope you're posting from a library computer or something because if you bought your own instead of buying one for a school or something then you're going to hell!

Those aren't pirate DVDs

[Cajun Hell]

They're just local cache for TPB!

Misconception

[93 Escort Wagon]

The story doesn't say the dogs can tell the difference between a legit DVD and an illegal copy. I'd guess the dogs are trained to find DVDs, period. If said DVDs are in crates stacked in some warehouse where they shouldn't be, then the dog has found some pirated DVDs.

But really, what legitimate reason do you guys have for disliking this - other than a general hatred of the MPA? Unlike many/most of the tactics used by that organization and its spawn, this seems reasonable. But so far in this discussion I've seen a lot of silliness and/or venom being contributed, but very little intelligent thought.

Re:Misconception

[QuantumG]

Because it's civil matter and the police shouldn't be doing investigations for the copyright owners.

Re:Misconception

[93 Escort Wagon]

Because it's civil matter and the police shouldn't be doing investigations for the copyright owners.

If it were the police doing it, I might agree with you. But the article actually says "The raids [were] carried out by officials from the MPA and Malaysia's trade and consumer affairs ministry". Seems like the appropriate people to me.

Re:Next logical step

[dangitman]

Unfortunatly, all he can do now is detect fake copies of Uwe Boll films...

Isn't that sentence somewhat redundant?

What about the real pirates

[penguin_dance]

Why don't they train these dogs to hunt down some REAL pirates.

Oh, I forgot, THOSE they just capture, then release!

Damn, governments are stupid....

Re:What about the real pirates

[TheLink]

To be fair, there are jurisdiction issues. Even the **AA have to get cooperation from local governments to take action on "pirates".

I hope they planted a GPS tracking device somewhere though.

Yes, they smell different! Try it!

[jriskin]

I just opened a spool of CD-R's, DVD-Rs, and compared them to Pressed DVD/CD's. The burned disks are QUITE STRONG in oder and its EASY to tell the difference even between CD-R and DVD-R at least with the disks I'm smelling. While they may have trained the dogs to smell for all of it, the dogs nose is WAY more sensitive than mine and I can easily distinguish after smelling a few.

Dogs would have ZERO problem telling them apart. It should be fairly trivial to give dogs a sampling of various burned media and then have them sniff them out.

I'm surprised people even think this is even far fetched. Sound pretty straight forward to me. But, then again i'm practical and the first thing I tried was smelling a bunch of media...

Re:Yes, they smell different! Try it!

[pavon]

Hmm, is there any difference between pressed media in a just opened shrink-wrapped jewel case, compared to burned media in the same packaging.

I would expect media in a newly open spindle to have a stronger smell than long opened media just because of the way it was packed, and the fact that it hasn't had as much time / surface area for the plastic to out-gas.

Re:Yes, they smell different! Try it!

[Chris Burke]

Sure CD-Rs and pressed CDs would smell different... but I was under the impression that the large-scale piracy operations pressed their disks just like the legitimate ones. The article doesn't say either way. But if it's true that they were pressed, them I'm betting the other slashdotters were right who said that the dog simply sniffed out large quantities of optical media, and once found check to see if it belongs there.

Re:Yes, they smell different! Try it!

[Threni]

These dogs are apparantly able to tell the difference between 'pirate' disks and legit ones. I'm sure a legit CDR smells much like a CDR containing 'pirate' music files.

I imagine what's actually happening is that to sort of badly-disguise the fact that the 'pirate' disks have been seized via illegal email/phone tapping or tip-offs from disgruntled/rival criminals, the authorities have come up with this horseshit story, which some people appear to be taking seriously...

Re:Yes, they smell different! Try it!

[drizek]

the smell goes away after a while, but as I understand it, it is part of some sort of preservative and prevents disc decay. You are supposed to keep the spools closed and wrapped until you are going to actually start burning.

Well,

[James Skarzinskas]

That's funny, because my dog's trained to sniff out bullshit. She's getting really yappy right about now, too.

35,000 DVDs of garbage

[davidwr]

I dare the dog to bust me for 35,000 DVDs worth of output from /dev/random.

Re:35,000 DVDs of garbage

[dotgain]

The last thing I'd want in my possession is 35,000 DVDs of data would appear to be encrypted to my captors, and being completely unable to prove otherwise.

Re:35,000 DVDs of garbage

[youn]

assuming 20$ per one hundred DVD, for 35 000 DVD of /dev/random, you'd have to spend a little less than $10 000 for empty media... let alone the time spent for reproduction and getting your hands on a reproduction machine.

That's a lot of time, efforts & money :)... I think I'll pass on this one.

Re:And the blind?

[TheP4st]

Yes, because clearly if the police didn't train them for this, they'd be out training dogs for the handicapped.

The money spent on training the dog to sniff for pirated CD's could have been used for something more useful like, training a dog for a blind person. So yes.

Re:And the blind?

[Scragglykat]

You mean like Das Boot, Below, and 20,000 Leagues?

Re:And the blind?

[bitt3n]

he's absolutely right. why are we needlessly giving these jobs to dogs when we could be employing the blind?

Easy solution...

[Anonymous Coward]

Just rub your cd's in cannabis to cover the smell...

Encryption?

[omuls are tasty]

But can they smell it if you encrypt the contents? HA!

smelly pirate hookers?

[trb]

Maybe they got Ron Burgundy to train the dogs to track the scent of smelly pirate hookers.

Grey shift

[Hognoxious]

I doubt there's any difference in the type of polycarbonate used for pirated DVDs versus legitimate ones...

They're probably even pressed in the same factories.

Yeah, of course we only run the lines eight hours a day, our workers need to rest!

Re:Next logical step

[Opportunist]

Wait a moment, wait a moment, someone actually copies that?

What a horrible, horrible waste of bandwidth and media. Oh, the humanity!

35,000 is not "huge"

[Lev13than]

Well, the title says "Anti-Piracy Dog" so it must have a means of smelling the contents of the disk

That's not the only thing misleading about the title - 35,000 is not exactly a "huge" number of discs.

According to Amazon, a 10-pack of slim-line discs measures 3x6x5 inches. That's 90sqin, or 9sqin per disk. Multiply by 35,000, and you get 315,000sqin. Sounds like a lot, but that's only 180 square feet. The entire stash would sit neatly on two pallets (stacked 6.5' high) or in 1/15 of a standard shipping container.

The same number of disks stored on 100-pack spindles would fit in a 4'x4'x3' stack, or slightly more than the cargo area of a Yaris. So, kudos to the dog for finding such a small target but deduct points for the overly-enthusiastic headline.

Re:35,000 is not "huge"

[rtb61]

The piracy is obviously detected by the eyes of the handler and the nose of the dog. The dog detects the odour of the disc manufacturing process and the handler inspect the packages, if they are labelled as DVD coming from a expected source and going to and expected source, fin. However if they are labelled as something other than DVD coming from a questionable source and going to a questionable source then there is a problem.

So pirates (often also the legal low cost producer) simply needs to camouflage their pirate DVDs as legal DVDs and not as something else. In the rare case they are DVDRs simply identify them as a legal shipment of blank DVDRs.

Re:35,000 is not "huge"

[dominious]

So, kudos to the dog for finding such a small target but deduct points for the overly-enthusiastic headline.

Well, I hope the dog reads /.

Re:35,000 is not "huge"

[1u3hr]

The dog detects the odour of the disc manufacturing process and the handler inspect the packages, if they are labelled as DVD coming from a expected source and going to and expected source, fin....

However, while the DVDs themselves are probably chemically identical, I have noticed that the case of bootleg discs often have a quite unpleaqsnt odour. But I guess bootleg disks are shipped on spindles or in cellophane envelopes, and packaged at the point of sale, since you can legally buy empty boxes anywhere.

Re:35,000 is not "huge"

[sabt-pestnu]

You must live in a different space than me. 3x6x5 inches for me comes out to 90 cubic inches. But thanks for visiting our plane of existence!

Re:And the blind?

[Anonymous Coward]

just great, instead of training dogs to help guide handicapped people, they use them for useless stuff like this.

Way to go, humanity!

And some people use dogs as just a pet. What a waste! ...There's a lot of dogs in the world. There's enough to go around to be trained for many useful things.

"Anti-Piracy Dog"

[Cajun Hell]

That sounds like a name of a mascot/fake_superhero the MPAA uses to explain copyright to children.

Jimmy: "Have you seen the new OMG Ponies movie?"
Jane: "No. Hey, let's download it!"
Jimmy: "Yeah!"
[Whooshing noise]
Jimmy and Jane in unison: "Anti-Piracy Dog!"
Anti-Piracy Dog: "Hi kids. You were about to download a movie. Every time you do that, a pirate throws a puppy into a wood-chipper."
Jimmy: "Is it the cute kind of puppy?"
Jane (nearly in tears): "That's the only kind of puppy there is! Oh no! I don't want cute puppies to die! What are we going to do?"
Jimmy (gravely): "We'll have to buy our movies, and only from authorized resellers."
Anti-Piracy Dog: "That's right, kids. So remember, don't pirate those movies."
Jane and Jimmy in unison, overflowing with cheer: "Thanks, Anti-Piracy Dog!"
Anti-Piracy Dog: "Up, up, and away!"
[Whooshing noise]

Beagles

[TheSync]

My beagles ate a DVD once. They also apparently like Python, as they ate the cover off of "Programming Python".

Note to myself: keep pepper-spray ...

[porky_pig_jr]

next to my vast DVD collection.

Thats fine

[KingPin27]

This is fine because I burn my cd's with curry powder and paprika.

BAWWWWW they don't want us stealing

[johncandale]

Because we should be able to reprint books, movies cd's and stock pile 35,000 discs.

Re:And the blind?

[siloko]

The dogs aren't stolen from the guide dog pool they are just narco grunts set loose on suspicios warehouses because as we know Intellectual Propery Theives are in cahoots with drug dealers, murderers and terrorists . . . and probably Somalian Pirates too!

True, but if you believe in copyright at all...

[weston]

So apparently recording agencies are able to do anything except record good music.

This may be more or less true (the RIAA itself certainly can't/doesn't produce anything, and the record labels are more or less businesses that hire talent, not producers themselves), but it doesn't say anything about the relative merits of piracy-sniffing dogs.

Selling unauthorized reproductions of a given work is an action on a completely different order from passing a recording on to a friend or two, and there's even ready distinctions between it and sticking a recording out onto a filesharing network. I'm not particularly sympathetic to the RIAA and labels when it comes to the later, but I don't have any problem with them nailing mass pirates to the wall when they're essentially selling bootleg knock-offs of a real product on a large scale. It makes sense if you believe in copyright at all.

Re:And the blind?

[youn]

It may be a waste of money... but you gotta admit some of those cars are pretty amazing

Re:And the blind?

[sortius_nod]

I don't know what's funnier, your comment or the +4 Informative.

Only on slashdot.

Re:DVD-R is not even an issue.

[KronosReaver]

Since when does idiocy get modded interesting?

They dogs are not sniffing out DVD-R discs, they are sniffing out Pirated DVD's... mass produced in nearly the same way as legit DVD's, with the intent of being sold to large numbers of end consumers, either as a cheaper alternative, or because the real thing is not available in that region yet, often because they are new theater releases.

So you can put away the tin foil, your "Pirated", and then burnt to DVD-R copy of The Hannah Montana Movie is safe from the dogs.

Tell me why....

[westlake]

just great, instead of training dogs to help guide handicapped people, they use them for useless stuff like this.
Way to go, humanity!

Tell me why the geek thinks that no one but a geek can multi-task.

Hasn't the skill.

Hasn't the resources.

Service animals have been performing jobs like these for ten thousand years.

The nomad tracking game. The canary in the mine.

What has changed is our appreciation of the animal's senses.

His intelligence.

But the truth, of course, is that the geek only trots out this argument when the nose points towards him.

The nose knows.
 

Re:Tell me why....

[ciderVisor]

The nomad tracking game. The canary in the mine.

The canary has less space than a nomad. Lame.

The roll of the dice

[westlake]

FIX YOUR FUCKIN' CODE

I can't get Slashdot to display pages consistently in a single session.

It's definitely a downer.

The geekiest - most FOSS and standards-obsessed site on the web - can't do plain text against a colored background and get it right.

Re:Next logical step

[HTH NE1]

Sometimes it sucks being part of the Digital Monastic Brotherhood.

Seal and Wash

[DigiShaman]

Just get yourself a vacuum bag sealer, then wash the bags in a washing machine with bleach for 30 minutes. Dogs wont smell shit even if put right up to their nose.

Re:And the blind?

[BrokenHalo]

Well, I guess an obvious way around it might be a liberal sprinkling of chilli powder. Or maybe soak the discs in laksa or something...

Oh damn, it wouldn't work. My dogs like curry...

Re:And the blind?

[BrokenHalo]

Hmmm. I wonder what imaginary property smells like... ;-)

Re:Next logical step

[Blakey Rat]

Success! We've trained this dog to sniff out bombs and counterfeit DVDs. Unfortunatly, all he can do now is detect fake copies of Uwe Boll films...

Uwe Boll films are all bombs, so I don't see where the contradiction lies...

The new NIPPER

[zazenation]

PADDY is the MPAA's twisted version of the RCA dog, NIPPER.
Have an image with Paddy inquisitively staring at a huge pallet of authentic MPAA DVDs with the logo:
"His Master's Profit"

Re:And the blind?

[apostrophesemicolon]

in related news,
a blind person was killed Tuesday night with two bullet wounds on his head. Watts Witham, 32, was found dead near a suspected pirated CD factory. His guide dog, Serpico, apparently was guiding him for an evening stroll when it sniffed the pirated CD chemicals emanating out of the factory. Unbeknownst to Mr. Witham, Serpico followed the scent and as the pirates found out of Mr. Witham's presence, they murdered him and dumped his body nearby.

This was the second incident after an Anonymous Coward suggested on an internet forum that "we can do both" train dogs as sniffing agents and guide dogs.

Great

[KneelBeforeZod]

Another reason for police dogs to bark at my car.

Re:And the blind?

[MichaelSmith]

Pirating is a bit of an issue in Malaysia. A couple of years ago I took a bus from my wife's home city of Ipoh to the airport in Kuala Lumpur. The bus had a DVD player and they had The War of the Worlds playing. The problem was that the audio track was in Russian and the English subtitles appeared to have been imperfectly translated from the imperfectly translated Audio.

I was certain that we had a problem there when I watched Tom Cruise running from the aliens yelling my elephant has gone to Europe!

Better idea...

[jerrydel]

What if they just trained a dog to howl on-key? By expanding their catalog that way they'd probably make more money, although it might take the public awhile to get reacquainted with what that sounds like.

Easy duty

[emaname]

Sniffing for DVDs sure beats sniffing for explosives.

Re:And the blind?

[mqduck]

It's only a false dilemma if training dogs takes zero resources. The resources to train this DVD-sniffing dog *could* have been used to train this dog to do something benificial.

Re:And the blind?

[DirtyCanuck]

Thus the enigma of giving somebody mod points for being funny.

Re:And the blind?

[eiapoce]

Trust me, seeing the movie that way was a improvement over the original.

Re:And the blind?

[hairyfeet]

Actually I had a buddy that was a county mountie and worked with the K9 unit. He said dealers would spread a little strong coke/crank mix around crappy loads they didn't give much of a care about. They would give those loads to some dumb junkie that didn't know jack and when the K9 unit smelled around the load the coke/crank mix would burn out the dogs nose. Then the next load that came through had a better chance of making it as the dog's nose was basically anesthetized from the coke/crank mix.

That is why he said most of the local K9 dogs ended up only working for a year or two before they ended up a cop's pet. They would get done that way several times and their noses would just keep getting less accurate until they weren't any better at smelling the dope than you or I. When they'd suspect the dog was suffering "burn out" they would give him a few tests to see how well he hit and if he failed some cop got a new pet. But considering the price to train these dogs I bet that isn't very good on the police budget, which is of course why the MPA is breaking out the checkbook. Because I can't see these Asian police forces giving enough of a crap over bootlegs of "The Dark Knight" to spend the cash needed to train and replace the dogs.

Yawn

[hyades1]

If they can train a dog to find DVDs in Malaysia that AREN'T pirated, give me a call.

Re:And the blind?

[fbjon]

The resources to train this DVD-sniffing dog *could* have been used to train this dog to do something beneficial.

Only easy if resources can be arbitrarily assigned, and moved without losses. It takes central planning to do the first bit, and the second bit is impossible.

Re:And the blind?

[TheLink]

The sad thing is originals (esp of Japanese anime) in Malaysia often have crappy translations too and it's hard to tell. Even worse, in a multi DVD set, the first DVD could be OK, but really bad in the second DVD (e.g. Britannia in the first DVD and Bu-Li-Ta-Ni-Ya in the second).

Another annoying thing is the originals often have ads you can't skip past on an ordinary DVD player. You seldom get that sort of BS with the pirate versions.

Anyway, despite what the _summary_ says I doubt the dogs can normally tell the difference between pirate and original DVDs.

The originals and "unauthorized" editions could even come from the same factory for all you know.

The dogs are just used to find where the huge stashes of DVDs are. If you have a lot of DVDs stored somewhere with no legit paper trail or good explanation then it gets rather suspicious ;).

Great idea!

[metacell]

Can you train them to find bugs too?!

Re:And the blind?

[Ginger Unicorn]

That's incorrect. To qualify as a false dilemma, the argument simply needs to assume there are only two options when there are in fact more. In this case a third option, doing both, is still arguably possible. The fact that both endeavours require non-zero resources does not necessarily constrain the solution to only doing one of them. It is only if the amount of resources required to do both of them is larger than the amount of available resources that the choice becomes constrained. Until you can demonstrate that this is the case, restricting the argument to doing one or the other is a false dilemma.

Re:And the blind?

[AlecC]

But does it actually displace dogs trained for the blind? Is there a shortage of appropriate dogs or trainers that would stop both kinds of dogs being trained, if the money was available? Because otherwise, it is not displacing dogs for the blind any more than any other kind of spending would. In fact, there might be economies of scale in dog training establishments.

Are we supposed to believe this shit?

[Tyr.1358]

"dogs can be trained to tell the difference between a legit copy of a DVD and one from those pesky pirates"

Are you fucking kidding me?

Re:And the blind?

[Anonymous Coward]

You know, I personally don't think copying a movie or a song is a problem. The problem is these little monkey fuckers that do it to make money. They don't deserve the the money...they should work like real people. Whatever you do, don't buy pirated bullshit. Copy that shit from a friend or off the Internet.

Re:And the blind?

[PixetaledPikachu]

just great, instead of training dogs to help guide handicapped people, they use them for useless stuff like this. Way to go, humanity!

How is it useless? Pirating copyrighted material is a crime, right?

Good for them!

[hesaigo999ca]

Good for them, its about time , we should only download and burn ourselves, and not let China in on our piracy movement or help us with it, because that actually does hurt us more then the actual downloading of a movie. If i download a movie, it means I might not really have bought it, for cash, so technically, there is no loss of revenue. If i buy a pirated dvd from China, not knowing it was from China, I was buying that dvd, which it in itself is real lost cash for the movie companies. I applaud there effort.

I seldom see pirated DVDs in Singapore nowadays

[troll8901]

I seldom see pirated DVDs in Singapore nowadays. If I see anyone selling bootleg DVDs, it's always a surprise to me.

I think most of us who get pirated movies, do it via P2P.

Pirated Vista DVD?

[motherpusbucket]

I doubt a dog could be trained to smell the difference between an original Vista DVD and a pirated one. The stench of that OS would overcome any media chemical differences.

Re:And the blind?

[kaatochacha]

But it's the MPAAs money. And they probably aren't in business to help the blind. That's like saying "The money spent by the rich guy on his yacht could have been better spent on helping the poor". Yes, that might be true. But odds are, that rich guy isn't going to spend it on the poor if he doesn't buy the yacht.

Hey dogs.

[FreeFull]

Do the dogs distinguish between a pirated movie a Linux disc? I'm afraid the police will stop my Linux distribution network. Better use something to cover up the smell from the warehouses.

Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r "R"rrrrrr

[davidsyes]

Remember the death threat against the dogs that outed a cache of discs in CHina last year? (or 2007?)

Well, i'm surprised that we haven't news reports that fake caches filled with cyanide burned out Woofie's nose...

OTOH, why bother with CN... that could get the global authorities REALLY pissed off. Instead, put dogphrodesiacs in the boxes, and give "man's best friend" a case of the woodies... Stiff, leaking dogs won't look good in public, and they'll leave stains on packages and the delivery agents will have to wear gloves and keep the boxes off their uniforms...

Coasters

[Kaiwen]

35,000 is a "huge" cache?! Puh-LEESE! Here in Shanghai, DVD factories churn out ten times that number before breakfast. In economic terms, it'd be like running down to the police station to report my pocket change missing. China is a movie watcher's paradise. 5rmb'll get you anything. The new Star Trek hit the streets four days before it hit theatres.

Lee Kaiwen, Shanghai

While you are at it ... fix the subject lines too!

[freaker_TuC]

Just like the post button has a big butt; other posts subject lines show white text on a white background...

Not very readable for most of us!

Or do we need to hack every browser in order to read Slashdot?...
Thank you for your understanding ;)

---
/. citizen 7632, posted on Firefox (newest stable edition).