Santa Clara County police arrested a 27-year-old "entrepreneur" with roughly 50,000 pirated DVDs stashed. The estimated street value of the collection adds up to $250k, and the movies naturally included titles currently in theaters -- including the critically acclaimed "Alvin and the Chipmunks." Police found the stash thanks to a 911 hang up at the man's home, and currently have him sitting in jail while everybody waits for the MPAA to redouble its consumer education efforts on this menace to society -- we're going to run out of plastic, people.

[Thanks, Paul B]

Although John Corney's RC treasure hunter hasn't happened upon any $10 billion finds or unreleased iPhone knockoffs, the remote controlled truck has indeed scrounged up part of a Medieval Pilgrims badge which has now been donated to Warminster Library Museum. The off-roading machine is essentially a souped up metal detector on wheels (er, tracks) that has an on-board camera "to show its controller where it is going." The creator is already "qualified in remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) control," and has used his mountain climbing machine to land "hundreds" of old coins and medieval artifacts including a World War II medical badge. The project didn't come easy, however, as Mr. Corney has spent over seven years and £2,000 ($3,958) honing its skills, but apparently, he's hunting down VCs right now to help bring "Champion the Wonder Robot" to market.

[Via Robot-Gossip]

Not too long after Pioneer went and introduced its second generation Blu-ray player, along comes Panasonic to follow suit, but unlike the BDP-LX70, we've got a pricetag as well as a few tempting reasons to pick this one up over the competition. The DMP-BD10A packs an audio upgrade that brings 7.1, Dolby True HD, and DTS-HD on board, and it incorporates Panasonic's EZ-Sync system for "one-touch operation" of your home theater. The overall design doesn't deviate too far from that seen in the first iteration, but you will find 1080p upconversion via HDMI, a 14-bit DA converter with 4x oversampling, support for BD-J, and compatibility between select HD camcorders via the AVCHD (H.264) codec. Notably, Panasonic is giving users two reasons to seriously considering its new offering, as the fairly reasonable $599.95 pricetag looks even better when you consider the five BD films (Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Transporter, Fantastic Four, and Crash) you'll be getting right in the box.

[Via Impress]

Runat is certainly no stranger to Disney-fied gadgets, but the company looks to have stepped up its game for its new batch of Pirates of the Caribbean wares, adding a suitably piratey touch to some otherwise unremarkable TVs, CD players, and DVD players. In addition to the stylish adornments seen above, the 14-inch TV with built-in DVD player also comes complete with a compass-style remote, which while less than practical would seem to at least be pretty hard to lose. Rounding out the pirate-themed line-up is a treasure chest CD player (check it out after the break), and a DVD player modeled after a ship's wheel (also after the break), complete with glowing skull, of course. While it's not clear when or if any of these'll make it to North America, you can currently get 'em in Japan, with the TV setting you back a hefty $245, and the CD and DVD player running $66 and $105, respectively.

[Via Akihabara News]

Our favorite DVD-sniffin' crime dogs, Lucky and Flo, won't just have that price on their heads to worry about now: bootleggers have added in chemical sprays to throw the dogs off the scent. The two dogs went into hiding when the bounty hunters started after them last week, and haven't participated in any raids since they busted up a $3 million piracy ring. Now police believe pirates are trying to "show off their strength" by getting pirated DVDs back onto the streets, and part of that effort is using chemical sprays to fool the dogs, which are on the hunt for polycarbonate chemicals -- the smell of plastic. We'll see how effective they are when Lucky and Flo get back out on those mean Malaysian streets, but Malaysia is already looking into training its own set of DVD sniffers, so these two won't be alone in their fight against Evil for long.

While Sweden (and Russia, to name a few) has long been a country of choice when it came to hosting less-than-upstanding websites, the head honchos around the globe looking out for their precious content have somehow reached The Pirate Bay, and now the popular torrent tracking site is eying the micronation of Sealand as a safe haven for its dubious hosting needs. Sealand, which is loosely claimed as a principality, features its own flag, coat of arms, currency, stamps, passports, and most importantly, a quasi-coat of armor from any nation's laws. Although the background of 5,920-square foot man-made installation off the shore of Suffolk, England is quite remarkable, TPB sees its two massive columns as a perfect place for future hosting duties. Formerly the home of HavenCo, an off-shore hosting company that housed gambling sites, money transferring liaisons, and any other operation looking for internet freedom, Sealand could be a potential sanctuary from the claws of the RIAA, MPAA, and other content "owners." Although a principality can't legally (saywha?) be "sold," the family in possession of it recently began accepting offers "upwards of eight figures" for a transfer of ownership after (quite literally) holding down the fort since 1967, and while we highly doubt a fundraiser can scrape up that kind of loot anytime soon, nor do we believe it'd stop the barrage of content guardians, we must say the location looks like an excellent place to just get away from it all (including lawyers) -- if only for awhile.

[Thanks, iamsoinsane, photo courtesy Kim Gilmour]

In what has to be the most impressive display of criminal initiative that we've ever seen, an organized group of conspirators in Japan, China, and Taiwan managed to convince dozens of factories in the latter two countries that they represented Japan's NEC Corp., and got them to manufacture pirated products under the NEC brand. According the the International Herald Tribune, not only did the pirates duplicate versions of real NEC devices -- which, according to NEC, were "of generally good quality" -- they actually began producing their own line of NEC-branded products, developed with R&D commissioned by NEC business card-carrying "executives."  All-in-all, the pirates had a product lineup of some fifty different items, ranging from home theater equipment to MP3 players to PC peripherals, and were even thoughtful enough to include counterfeit manuals and warranty documents with their goods. Apparently the ring has been operating since at least 2004, although the real NEC only made the details known recently, following a private investigation that led to the ringleaders' arrest and crackdowns by local authorities on the offending factories.

[Via Techdirt]