In their efforts to combat movie piracy, the entertainment industry has literally gone to the dogs.
Lucky and Flo are two black Labrador Retrievers that are being used by the movie industry to sniff out counterfeit CDs and DVDs. After success in other countries around the world, the duo is bringing its nose for success to North America.
In late August, the dogs assisted in a bust of thousands of counterfeit DVDs in Queens, New York which led to three people being charged with DVD piracy. It was the first time that dogs were used in the United States to combat DVD piracy.
The dogs are the only two in the world who have been specifically trained to identify optical discs by the scent of their chemicals. The dogs sniff out the fake products through their ability to detect polycarbonates on the CDs.
The dogs were enlisted to combat movie piracy after U.S. watchdog the Motion Picture Association of America launched a feasibility study in 2004 to determine whether dogs could detect polycarbonates and other chemicals used in DVDs and CDs.
They enlisted the services of the U.K.'s Neil Powell, who had previously trained dogs to detect bombs and other devices.
"It took me four weeks roughly to establish that DVDs have a detectable odour," Powell told CTV's Canada AM.
The dogs were soon deployed to work at Stansted Airport in the United Kingdom after about twelve weeks of training and were successful in identifying packages containing DVDs.
The dogs are rewarded with a tennis ball when they successfully detect the CD scent.
The dogs can determine the presence of polycarbonates in CDs and DVDs, but do not know whether they are pirated or legal discs. Enforcement officers who accompany the dogs during the raids can easily determine this once the caches, which are often hidden, have been unearthed.
"The interesting thing is that the scent is not very containable...The scent seems to permeate through any container it's in. It's an association of the odour with the tennis ball," Powell said.
The dogs know that if they find the counterfeit products, they are rewarded with the balls.
Earlier this year, the dogs were deployed to Malaysia, and their ability to sniff out counterfeit CDs broke up a piracy ring worth nearly US$3 million.
"They were so successful that Malaysian pirate syndicates put out a bounty on the dogs' heads and the government decided they want to train their own canine unit," said John Malcolm, director of Worldwide Anti-Piracy Operations of the Motion Picture Association.
The dogs, who unearthed 1.6 million counterfeit CDs, were awarded medals by the Malaysian government's deputy trade minister for their efforts.
Malcolm said the MPA is now working with the Malaysian government so that it can develop its own canine unit that can sniff out counterfeit CDs and DVDs.
Pirated movies cost the worldwide film industry more than $18 billion annually, said Malcolm.
"That's a lot of people who want to get into making movie magic who aren't going to get jobs, people who will not invest in making films and it's really the audience-going public that suffers, in addition to all these talented artists who never get to showcase their talent," Malcolm said.
Peel Regional Police seized more than 40,000 pirated DVDs and made more than 25 arrests after a series of raids were conducted around the Greater Toronto Area.
With files from The Associated Press
