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story
Comments: 283 +- Your Rights Online: Anti-Piracy Dog Uncovers Huge Cache of Discs on Thursday June 04 2009, @03:38PM
Posted
by
samzenpus
on Thursday June 04 2009, @03:38PM
from the follow-your-nose dept.
from the follow-your-nose dept.
background: url(//a.fsdn.com/sd/articles/09/06/04/1620225-1-thumb.png); width:130px; height:97px;
media
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.
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Dear Slashdot, (Score:5, Insightful)
| FIX YOUR |
| FUCKIN' |
| CODE |
+----------+
| |
| |
Re:Dear Slashdot, (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
The roll of the dice (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Parent
Steak. (Score:4, Funny)
I plan to coat all of my real DVD's in steak, that should distract 'em!
So the dog go off on any dvd-r (Score:4, Interesting)
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 (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Parent
35,000 is not "huge" (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Parent
Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r (Score:5, Interesting)
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"....
Parent
Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
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
Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r (Score:4, Interesting)
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).
Parent
Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:So the dog go off on any dvd-r (Score:4, Funny)
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.
Parent
So.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Who knew... (Score:5, Funny)
Who knew that the evil bit had a smell?
DVD smell (Score:4, Funny)
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.
Water Marks (Score:3, Funny)
Has probably something to do with detecting watermarks.... At least they're fond to set new "watermarks" everywhere.
Yours, Martin
works in countries (Score:3, Insightful)
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: (Score:3, Insightful)
Never mind DVD sniffing... (Score:5, Funny)
If they train a dog to sniff out Bittorrent packets, I'll be truly impressed.
Re:Never mind DVD sniffing... (Score:4, Funny)
They did that, but then WoW released a patch and it went into a coma...
Parent
More reason to support piracy! (Score:4, Funny)
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.
Misleading summary (Score:5, Informative)
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.
THAT is piracy (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Let Me Guess . . . (Score:3, Funny)
25,000 copies of BOLT.
7,500 copies of Lady and the Tramp
2,500 copies of Reservoir Dogs
time to pack discs in coffee grounds (Score:3, Insightful)
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 (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/node/8634 [cannabisculture.com]
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!
Parent
Not from the onion? (Score:3, Insightful)
Mod me down, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
...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.
Those aren't pirate DVDs (Score:3, Funny)
Misconception (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Yes, they smell different! Try it! (Score:5, Interesting)
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: (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Well, (Score:4, Funny)
"Anti-Piracy Dog" (Score:5, Funny)
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]
Re:And the blind? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:And the blind? (Score:5, Funny)
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!
Parent
Re:And the blind? (Score:4, Funny)
Trust me, seeing the movie that way was a improvement over the original.
Parent
Re:And the blind? (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
False dilemma. We can do both.
Re:And the blind? (Score:4, Funny)
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.
Parent
Re:And the blind? (Score:5, Funny)
instead of training dogs to help guide handicapped people
They are; the heads of organisations like the MPA clearly have learning difficulties.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
So breeds aren't very good at the job
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
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!
Re:Next logical step (Score:4, Funny)
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...
Parent
Re:How does the dog do this? (Score:4, Informative)
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 [bbc.co.uk] has details.
Parent