14 DAY TRIAL // Malaysia doesn't have the best reputation when it comes to respecting intellectual property rights, and the authorities are trying to take measures to change that. Two male Labradors, specially trained to sniff out the chemicals used in DVD production, have been brought from Northern Ireland and will become the world's first permanent canine national anti-piracy unit, according to a report from the Associated Press.
Paddy and Manny, by their names, will go into action next month, and will be used to find hidden caches of discs in special raids, according to Malaysia's Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs. While they can't tell the difference between legit DVDs and pirated ones, they will be most useful when suspicions are being floated around.
The idea of the squad was given to the Malaysian authorities by the visit of a similar unit from the U.S. Motion Pictures Association last year, when in only six months the dogs managed to point authorities to finding 1.6 million pirated DVDs and other optical discs and equipment worth $6 million, as Mohhamad Roslan Mahayuddin, the ministry's enforcement director, told AP reporters on Monday.
Paddy and Manny have been bought and trained for about $24,000, by the MPAA, and were donated to the Malaysian Force due to the fact that discs originating from the Asian country are now found less abroad: "We are not seeing Malaysian products appear all over the world like we used to so it's more now of a domestic problem. And the dogs will certainly help the domestic problem," Mike Ellis, the Association's Asia-Pacific director said.
The two Labradors have already been considered as targets by the pirates, as the previous pair was placed a $29,000 bounty on, but Mohammad Roslan has assured the MPAA that he will go out of his way in assuring that the new dogs are safe.