A DVD-sniffing dog has helped Malaysia shut down six warehouses storing some 35 000 pirated movies and other discs slated to be exported to Singapore, officials said.
A statement by the U.S. Motion Picture Association received late on Tuesday said Paddy, a black Labrador, helped officials seize some 35 000 discs and copies of movies, games and software in six raids in southern Johor state over the weekend.
Paddy is one of two dogs Malaysia got last year from the Motion Picture Association to help the country crack down on movie piracy, which is costing film industries billions of dollars. It is one of a few dogs worldwide trained to detect a chemical used in DVD manufacturing and sniff out hidden disc caches.
Officers raided the premises — four of them in a mall — and discovered copies of such latest blockbusters as ”Terminator Salvation,” ”Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian”, ”Angels and Demons” and ”Star Trek,” the statement said.
”Paddy’s sensitive nose” also found copies of games and software, it said. Packages with e-mail orders from two websites were also discovered. Authorities are still investigating the websites.
Mohamad Roslan Mahayuddin, a senior official of the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry, said he expected ”similar actions” to curb piracy.
”This is a clear signal to the pirates that we will not waiver in our efforts to shut them down,” he said in the statement.
Paddy was trained together with another Labrador, Manny, in Ireland to become the world’s first permanent canine anti-piracyunit, set up in Malaysia in February last year. But Manny died in May last year.
The Motion Picture Association says U.S. member studios lost $6,1-billion to worldwide piracy in 2005, including $1,2-billion worth of fake recordings originating in Asia and the Pacific region. — Sapa, AP