Anti-Piracy Dog Uncovers Huge Cache of Discs 283
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.
Dear Slashdot, (Score:5, Insightful)
| FIX YOUR |
| FUCKIN' |
| CODE |
+----------+
| |
| |
Re:Dear Slashdot, (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
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.
Re: (Score:2)
Does it like sniffing arrrses like most dogs?
Encryption? (Score:2)
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.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Is anyone else besides me beginning to get the feeling that someone has figured out that if you teach a dog to go to where you direct it, with subtle, barely perceptible signals only noticeable by a dog, and just pretend that the dog did it on their own, that nobody ever questions that?
Is this just another way around a search warrant?
IANAL (obviously!), so can someone that IS please clue us in? Does a DOG need a search warrant, and if not, WHY not? How is evidence that is found by a dog, but not under a sea
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"....
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.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
And before you ask, no, I'm not new here.
1352. You know he hasn't read the RTFA. You know he hasn't read the summary. The comments. Now you know - from someone who should know - that the true Slashdotter doesn't even know the elders hereabouts! The truly primal geeks.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
My guess is that it isn't the polycarbonate (which is common enough that the dogs would be in a constant frenzy), but rather the chemicals used in the dyes in burnable media (cyanide compounds, IIRC) which are aren't present in stamped media.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
A lot of mass-pirated discs are stamped media. Sniffing for DVD-Rs might catch the small-time pirates---maybe even the medium ones---but those folks aren't likely to be storing tens of thousands of discs for sale; they're likely burning a few dozen copies of each title per week in the back room of their home or business. If you're talking about a cache of 35,000 discs, I suspect you're almost certainly well into the stamped media large-scale commercial pirate territory.
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).
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.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
If the dog doesn't bark nothing happens. If the dog barks and there is something, he gets a reward. If the dog barks and there isn't something, he doesn't get his bastard balls hit repeatedly with a bamboo stick.
You don't have to be John Nash to predict what muttley's going to do.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
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.
Look I get what you're saying and I agree with your point, but that's no reason to hate on some perfectly fine hobbies. They aren't my hobbies, though they would be if I was more flexible. And if the police officer who conducted the search with a legitimate warrant
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
One was a chocoholic and would alert on anything that had chocolate.
The other was a lunchgut that would alert on anything with food when he got hungry.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
35,000 DVD-Rs would be used up in one year by someone making complete weekly backups of 3.16 TB of data. That could be 16 workstations each having 200 GB to back up. And that's without any additional redundancy.
10,080 minutes in a week, 672.34 disks a week, that's about 15 minutes per disk going 24/7.
How much per disk in bulk is 35,000 DVD-Rs (I assume less than 4.7 cents per disk), and can you get something else of equivalent or greater storage capacity in bulk at a cheaper price per GB (tapes, hard drives
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know about that. Perhaps the dog's just trained to smell permanent marker. Some of those fake DVDs aren't all that high quality ;-)
What about the real pirates (Score:2)
Why don't they train these dogs to hunt down some REAL pirates.
Oh, I forgot, THOSE [nation.co.ke] they just capture, then release!
Damn, governments are stupid....
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
sigh
"such a high concentration of media in one place screams "professional pirates"...."
That and the fact that at least some of the titles are not even out on DVD yet might be another clue....
And despite our summary (if jumping to conclusions was an olympic sport...every country would be trying to recruit us...) the Yahoo article does not indicate if the dog can tell a burned DVD from a pressed one. Look at the shipping papers... go from there. Not exactly complicated at that point even for a lowly cop.
Re: (Score:2)
It wouldn't surprise me that "burned" DVD-R have a slightly different smell than a normal one, something that a dog can detect.
OTOH, I would think big time pirate would just professionally "press" a dvd rather than burning them? No clue.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
smelly pirate hookers? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Smells like a made up story... (Score:2, Interesting)
...to scare the kids.
So.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Sure, we can all agree that this occasion was good because they were making a profit, but how much longer till it starts targeting the average person
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Why would they?
As you observed, they can already "bribe judges, hire lawyers, buy congress, complain, make commercials and now train dogs" -- why change your business model when you can do all of that to prop up the one you have?
Cheers
Not exactly (Score:2)
Commercial music is designed for easy marketability, like most other consumer products. Examples :
(1) Apples exist in numerous different varieties all over the wold. We don't eat the best tasting ones, not by far, we eat the ones that still look red after being shipped.
(2) Potato chip companies made chips without added sugar for years because taste tests shows people preferred potato chips without sugar. But then some clever bastard noticed that people eat more chips if they add sugar. So now they ignor
Re: (Score:2)
You can hardly blame them for trying to stop people making actual physical copies for illegal resale. I'm all for bashing them for their evils but training a dog to sniff out optical media isn't exactly something from the Dr Evil pet tricks handbook.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
except record good music
The recording industry wants music that will sell. That does not necessarily mean good music.
Actually good music often sells. The problem is predicting which music is good and marketable. So instead they make poor copies of something else that once sold then try to manufacture a market around it. It's a bad business model if you have the ability to actually create something marketable and unique and you're willing to risk several busts prior to boom. If on the other hand you're trying to make ever move a monetary success and you lack the ability to produce unique works yourself and you're burde
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.
my "backups" (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Not funny ... I am sitting on ten years' worth of backups, would not want to have the dogs barking at my door then the police browse each CD or DVD to try find copyrighted material.
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
How does the dog do this? (Score:2, Interesting)
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.
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
So if I rob you it's fine as long as I use the money to feed my family?
No, because I get something taken away. Now, if you could make a 1 on 1 copy of my car without damaging it, sure, I'd be happy to let you make a copy of it. Similarly if I had a infinite (as in really infinite, not just a lot) supply of money I wouldn't mind if you took from the never-ending pile of money in my front yard.
Yes, you could argue that they could possibly be taking away sales, however usually pirated stuff is sold at a huge discount (though not free) that some people who wouldn't buy it wo
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...
Animal Cruelty! (Score:2, Funny)
Some of the movies made recently reek so bad I would worry about them permanently damaging the poor dogs nose.
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.
Re: (Score:2)
Unless you're trying to avoid import/export taxes, of course. In which case, they'd want to find them anyway, so they can tax them.
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
Re: (Score:2)
How about Homeward Bound?
Re: (Score:2)
Or Marley and Me...
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!
Wrong way (Score:2, Funny)
Not from the onion? (Score:3, Insightful)
It's because pirates stink, duh! (Score:2, Informative)
That and being a pirate/biker myself (pirate by blood, my great grandfather was a Spanish pirate in Campeche!) we stink. So apparently we need to improve our hygiene! BTW have you seen Anakata lately? Now do you believe me about hygiene...
Black Sharpie (Score:2, Funny)
i know that smell (Score:2)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
Because it's civil matter and the police shouldn't be doing investigations for the copyright owners.
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.
Re: (Score:2)
Sure CD-Rs and pressed CDs would smell different... but I was under the impression that the large-scale piracy operations pressed their disks just like the legitimate ones. The article doesn't say either way. But if it's true that they were pressed, them I'm betting the other slashdotters were right who said that the dog simply sniffed out large quantities of optical media, and once found check to see if it belongs there.
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]
Note to myself: keep pepper-spray ... (Score:3, Funny)
next to my vast DVD collection.
Re:And the blind? (Score:5, Funny)
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!
Re:And the blind? (Score:4, Funny)
Trust me, seeing the movie that way was a improvement over the original.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Another annoying thing is the originals often have ads you can't skip past on an ordinary DVD player. You seldom get that sort of BS with the pirate versions.
Anyway, despite what the _summary_ says I doubt the dogs can normally tell
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
It's only a false dilemma if training dogs takes zero resources. The resources to train this DVD-sniffing dog *could* have been used to train this dog to do something benificial.
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.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I don't know what's funnier, your comment or the +4 Informative.
Only on slashdot.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Yes, because clearly if the police didn't train them for this, they'd be out training dogs for the handicapped. Society obviously works this way. As a species we're incapable of doing two things at once. Troll.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, because clearly if the police didn't train them for this, they'd be out training dogs for the handicapped.
The money spent on training the dog to sniff for pirated CD's could have been used for something more useful like, training a dog for a blind person. So yes.
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: (Score:2)
Tell me why.... (Score:3, Interesting)
just great, instead of training dogs to help guide handicapped people, they use them for useless stuff like this.
Way to go, humanity!
Tell me why the geek thinks that no one but a geek can multi-task.
Hasn't the skill.
Hasn't the resources.
Service animals have been performing jobs like these for ten thousand years.
The nomad tracking game. The canary in the mine.
What has changed is our appreciation of the animal's senses.
His intelligence.
But the truth, of course, is that the geek only trots out this argum
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...
Re: (Score:2)
Unfortunatly, all he can do now is detect fake copies of Uwe Boll films...
Isn't that sentence somewhat redundant?
Re: (Score:3, 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...
Uwe Boll films are all bombs, so I don't see where the contradiction lies...
Re: (Score:2)
And I don't know where you live, but where I live jaywalking is a $180 fine.