Malaysian pirates slap bounty on DVD-sniffing mutts

Lucky and Flo on syndicate deathlist

By Lester Haines • Get more from this author

Posted in Software, 22nd March 2007 11:52 GMT

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Malaysian DVD pirates have slapped a bounty on the heads of sniffer dogs which earlier this week helped seize around $3m* in fake DVDs, Reuters reports.

According to The New Straits Times, "syndicate bosses" are none too happy about the olfactory abilities of black Labradors Lucky and Flo, who on Tuesday were involved in the location of "a cache of around a million pirated game and movie discs in the southern city of Johor Baru".

Six people were cuffed during the operation, which discovered pirate DVDs and copying equipment "hidden in concealed spaces and secret compartments spread over four floors of an office building".

Neil Gane, an official of the Motion Picture Association (MPA), told Reuters: "As a result of the extent of loss to the pirate syndicate, we have information from the domestic trade ministry that the Johor syndicate is intent on killing Lucky and Flo. The Malaysian authorities are taking this threat seriously and the security around the dogs' current location has been beefed up."

Lucky and Flo - trained to "sit down when they smell plastic" and who've worked mainly "to check containers in cargo hangars" - are on a month's trial in a joint operation between Malaysian authorities and the MPA. ®

Bootnote

*Good to see the value of the fake DVDs and games calculated at the street price and not, as has previously been the case, the full retail value. Nonetheless, £3m still represents an awful lot of Vietnamese babies for cash-strapped Hollywood celebs.

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