Lucky and Flo sniff-out another $450k in pirated DVDs

Last month, the MPAA's two DVD sniffing dogs busted a ring of $3 million worth of pirated DVD movies and games in Malaysia. Over the weekend, Lucky and Flo sniffed down another $430,000 after police failed to find the discs during an initial search. After calling in the "canine brigade," the dogs were able to quickly sniff-out the discs hidden away in a room that could "only be accessed by the push of a button hidden under a plug outlet." Nice work pups, Scooby snacks for all.

[Will @ Apr 2nd 2007 7:52AM]

*haaapciu*


Excuse me... I'm alergic to bullshit.

[ashmist @ Apr 2nd 2007 8:28AM]

What's the MPAA doing in Malaysia?

[ElTiEl @ Apr 2nd 2007 8:29AM]

No.. it's not fake. I'm a Malaysian, and it's true that the police has brought it these 2 dogs which is doing an unbelievable job at sniffing out pirated CDs. They're doing so good that the pirate mobs are setting a bounty to bring them down.

[Minjeeta @ Apr 2nd 2007 8:34AM]

"a room that could only be accessed by the push of a button hidden under a plug outlet."

Stop EVERYTHING. I want one of these rooms. Right now.

[Will @ Apr 2nd 2007 8:39AM]

"They're doing so good that the pirate mobs are setting a bounty to bring them down."


*haaapciu*

[ElTiEl @ Apr 2nd 2007 8:49AM]

@Will

If you insist - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6478235.stm

[isiria @ Apr 2nd 2007 8:40AM]

why "Nice work pups, Scooby snacks for all"? what's so good about that job? or are Scooby snacks poison? ;)

[DAZA @ Apr 2nd 2007 8:44AM]

I feel awful for the pirates. They go to all that effort to hide the discs in a secret room and a dog comes and ruins their whole operation. I have a feeling they'll be doing some hard time.

[MYS @ Apr 2nd 2007 9:25AM]

@Will

I'm Malaysian as well, and i'm sure you're not. So let me tell you that there is definately a SIGNIFICANT decrease in all the pirated shops sales and stock, since these dogs came. What they forgot to mention is that these dogs cant tell the difference btwn fake software and fake movie, and the illegal software industry is also hit.
Call bullshit if you like, but the facts remain, as reported by all the major news networks. Or are they in the 'conspiracy ' too?
Why dont you come here and have a look for yourself if you dont believe it? It is Visit Malaysia Year!

[Will @ Apr 2nd 2007 9:44AM]

I call major bullshit. There is no way dogs can "sniff out pirated discs". Can they sniff out plastic? Possibly.
Can they sniff out pirated discs? Bullshit. They only smell plastics in the room and that isn't that new.

All this media coverage is just hype.

[MYS @ Apr 2nd 2007 9:59AM]

If you've bothered to read the linked pages, you'd see that nowhere is is said that they sniff out pirated discs specifically (that's stupid, i agree).
Instead, "The animals were trained in Northern Ireland to identify the smell of polycarbonates - chemicals used in the disc manufacturing process"

and "The three-year-old animals - trained by a handler in Northern Ireland who usually teaches dogs to find bombs - can find, but cannot distinguish between, CDs and DVDs, burned and replicated disks, or legitimate and pirate disks. The dogs take only 10 minutes to check boxes that security officials would have needed a day to examine."

From this, I would conclude that they smell the plastics used in disc manufacturing (as opposed to the plastic in ur chair or folder file) and so would not go crazy at the smell of any plastic object, as some ppl have thought.

[PDubNYC @ Apr 2nd 2007 10:32AM]

Will, shut up, it's true. You've made a big enough ass of yourself, just pipe down.

I do find it strange that Engadget is pretending (in my mind) to be in favor of this, in spite of having real hatred of the MPAA, and in all liklihood, have more than a few pirated DVDs in their collection.

[Fireman54 @ Apr 2nd 2007 9:58AM]

Okay, maybe the article doesn't explain properly. The piraters hide the disks from law enforcement. You don't think they keep them out in the open, do you? The dogs are trained to sniff out the chemicals used in the manufacturing of the disks. It's not that the disks are pirated/illegal. They are hidden BECAUSE they are pirated. The dogs, simply find them.

[yujean @ Apr 2nd 2007 10:13AM]

actually, these dogs aren't an april fool's joke...

instead of a hiding the CD/DVD's in a hidden passageway, they should have hid them in microwaves... The second that the dogs come---zap the evidence in seconds~ :P

[Jake @ Apr 2nd 2007 10:28AM]

April fools!

[chris @ Apr 2nd 2007 8:28AM]

You guys are soooo stupid... its 2nd April and these dogs are real.

[007 @ Apr 2nd 2007 10:37AM]

What do you have to do to stop these dogs from finding these discs? Is there something you can do to thow off the scent and make the dogs not find the discs?This person should have hidden them in his friends house without his friend finding out and wearing a glove so nobody could identify the fingerprints.

[kerry @ Apr 2nd 2007 11:29AM]

If you wanted to hide your discs from the dogs you'd have to embed them in something that would both overwhelm and contain the scent, like peanut butter (or, in Malaysia, perhaps some durian fruit :P). That said, it'd be extremely difficult to clean the scent trail from the discs into your wall or wherever you're hiding them. It's been shown that prisoner tracking dogs can follow a scent trail through moving water (like creeks and rivers), so a stationary trail would be easy to pick up.
Also, before people start calling bullshit they should go and read any of the dozens of articles about these dogs, or at least do some cursory research on the sniffing capabilities of dogs. They can smell cancer, surely it's not a stretch to sniff out some plastics.

[Will @ Apr 2nd 2007 1:19PM]

Coffee. It kills any scent so I guess it kills this scent too.


ShadowOfTheHegemon: That would mean that CDs not based on alu-gold can't be sniffed?

[ShadowOfTheHegemon @ Apr 2nd 2007 11:41AM]

For those of you who are arguing against the dogs' ability to sniff pirated DVDs, here's the scoop. When a CD or DVD is burned, a chemical reaction takes places that catalyzes a galvanic response between the disks' gold and aluminum coatings, beginning a process known as dvd "rot", causing the dvd to give off a particular, though minuscule, scent.

[josh blue @ Apr 2nd 2007 11:52AM]

They would have gotten away with it if it hadnt been for those meddling kids and their dog!

[Nick @ Apr 2nd 2007 12:26PM]

does "...only be accessed by the push of a button hidden under a plug outlet." mean "...only be accessed by tearing a whole through the wall."

[Brian @ Apr 2nd 2007 3:21PM]

I'm glad engadget is in favor of this. I wouldn't say they're anti-piracy, but NO WOULD should feel grief for people who charge CASH for pirated warez. These people deserve to go to jail.

[nikster @ Apr 2nd 2007 7:21PM]

look i hate the MPIAA and RIAA as much as anyone. that doesn't mean i have a lot of sympathy for people who make tons of $ with pirating movies/DVDs/software.

hence - hooray for the cute dogs! :)

btw i am in south east asia and yes, the first thing the pirates did was set a bounty on the dogs. kill them and collect it. which has not, i might add, made the pirates any more popular.

[Shaw @ Apr 3rd 2007 10:11PM]

Read from both side b4 we jump into any conclusion, ok....

Read news... dogs done a good job
Read blogs... dogs done a good actor
http://maverickysm.blogspot.com/2007/04/lucky-flos-surreal-successes.html

[Fadamor @ Apr 10th 2008 1:50PM]

A bounty is stupid anyway. With the success of these two, you KNOW they're in the process of training more squads (packs?) of putrid polycarbonate pouncing pooches. :-)