AfterDawn: Tech news

Malaysian pirates using chemical spray to mask DVD scent

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 07 Apr 2007 9:17 User comments (11)

Malaysian pirates using chemical spray to mask DVD scent In an update to our previous article here in which Malaysian pirates put out a bounty on MPAA sniffer dogs, the dogs have gone into hiding and Malaysian pirates have begun using a chemical spray on their pirated discs to mask the smell.
Lucky and Flo, the two sniffer dogs, have been moved from safe house to safe house in an effort to spare them from Malaysian bounty hunters.

The two labradors have been trained to detect the polycarbonate chemicals used in manufacturing DVDs, but Fahmi Kassim, a Malaysian official, has said that officials received a lead that pirates are now using chemical sprays to mask the scent.

"The pirates are believed to be desperate because the dogs were so successful,"
Fahmi told The Associated Press.

The dogs are on loan from the MPAA so how long they will have to remain in hiding before they are shipped back to the US is still in question.

Source:
Zeropaid

Previous Next  

11 user comments

17.4.2007 09:18
corn
Inactive

Seems thats just stupid, but smart at the same time...

27.4.2007 09:35

"The pirates are believed to be desperate because the dogs were so successful," Fahmi told The Associated Press.

Duh! If I was making $3 million profit off pirated DVDs etc. I would find ways to keep my lofty livelihood. However, from what I remember, this is probably gonna have the same effect as a drug dealer putting some other strong scented stuff with his drugs to try and fool the dogs.

I read something that said to a properly trained dog, finding drugs (or DVDs in this case) by scent, even with chemical sprays etc. to try and 'mask' the scent is like us picking out a white dot in a black background.

It does them no good, but if they spray some sort of anti-dog chemical on it that might do it.

37.4.2007 09:48

"Let's hide our sniffer dogs so the pirates and their bounty hunter buddies wont ever found them."

It just sounds funny to hide dogs. :D

47.4.2007 09:54

How are the dogs able to determine whether the DVD is in fact a pirated disc versus just a blank DVD?

I mean when burning a DVD no special chemicals are added to the disc, so the reality of it is that all DVD's would all smell the same. Correct?

Won't they realize this is a stupid idea when they keep uncovering DVD's that are everything, BUT pirated material?

What if the DVD sniffer dogs are just a hoax to use as a scare tactic for illegal piraters?

57.4.2007 10:03

McPot, its probably they strength of the smell from having so many dvd's in one spot.

67.4.2007 13:11

yeah man, i'm sure they're not moving just a few dvds at a time. I would guess its something like those big marijuana busts that you hear about... tons of the stuff. and all probably packed into a small area (hundreds or thousands of dvds in one bag).. donno, just my two cents

77.4.2007 18:49

Originally posted by McPot:
How are the dogs able to determine whether the DVD is in fact a pirated disc versus just a blank DVD?

I mean when burning a DVD no special chemicals are added to the disc, so the reality of it is that all DVD's would all smell the same. Correct?

Won't they realize this is a stupid idea when they keep uncovering DVD's that are everything, BUT pirated material?

What if the DVD sniffer dogs are just a hoax to use as a scare tactic for illegal piraters?
Lable them 'home movies' if your moving them in small numbers LOL! And put a few home movies in there hahahaa

87.4.2007 20:02

Originally posted by McPot:
How are the dogs able to determine whether the DVD is in fact a pirated disc versus just a blank DVD?

I mean when burning a DVD no special chemicals are added to the disc, so the reality of it is that all DVD's would all smell the same. Correct?

Won't they realize this is a stupid idea when they keep uncovering DVD's that are everything, BUT pirated material?

What if the DVD sniffer dogs are just a hoax to use as a scare tactic for illegal piraters?
The dogs can't distinguish. That exact point was discussed on another recent article about them. According to the poster on the other topic numerous storage areas were broken into by the police which contained large amounts of items made out of similar materials to the DVDs before they ever found any DVDs, but that bit was hushed up by many reports.

98.4.2007 15:01

Poor old lucky and flo, no so lucky now are you :(

Tho this site says:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...6092601505.html

According to Japanese patent JP 61147201 or United States Patent 6739719, theres a method for reducing/killing the smell of polycarbonate in lense manufacture.

I would assume they would just adopt this chemical into the mix before they injection mould the disk.

108.4.2007 20:14
Franco45
Inactive

Yeah, dogs sense of smell works different than ours. They can smell each seperate item, whatever they are.

1116.12.2007 06:06

Does it really matter if they can discriminate between legal/illegal discs?

Dogs smell discs,
Cops say open your bag,
They see they are blank,
You get on your plane...

I guess you can use medical vs. non medical pot as an analogy ;)

Comments have been disabled for this article.

Latest news

VLC hits milestone: over 5 billion downloads VLC hits milestone: over 5 billion downloads (16 Mar 2024 4:31)
VLC Media Player, the versatile video-software powerhouse, has achieved a remarkable feat: it has been downloaded over 5 billion times.
1 user comment
Sideloading apps to Android gets easier, as Google settles its lawsuit Sideloading apps to Android gets easier, as Google settles its lawsuit (19 Dec 2023 11:09)
Google settled its lawsuit in September 2023, and one of the settlement terms was that the way applications are installed on Android from outside the Google Play Store must become simpler. In the future, installing APK files will be easier.
7 user comments
Roomba Combo j7+ review - Clever trick allows robot vacuum finally to tackle home with rugs and carpets Roomba Combo j7+ review - Clever trick allows robot vacuum finally to tackle home with rugs and carpets (06 Jun 2023 9:19)
Roomba Combo j7+ is the very first Roomba model to combine robot vacuum with mopping features. And Roomba Combo j7+ does all that with a very clever trick, which tackles the problem with mopping and carpets. But is it any good? We found out.
Neato, the robot vacuum company, ends its operations Neato, the robot vacuum company, ends its operations (02 May 2023 3:38)
Neato Robotics has ceased its operations. American robot vacuum pioneer founded in 2005 has finally called it quits and company will cease its operations and sales. Only a skeleton crew will remain who will keep the servers running until 2028.
5 user comments
How to Send Messages to Yourself on WhatsApp How to Send Messages to Yourself on WhatsApp (20 Mar 2023 1:25)
The world's most popular messaging platform, Meta-owned WhatsApp has enabled sending messages to yourself. While at first, this might seem like an odd feature, it can be very useful in a lot of situations. ....
18 user comments

News archive