Via BBC -
Two sniffer dogs trained in Northern Ireland are the toast of New York law enforcement after uncovering a cache of counterfeit DVDs.
Lucky and Flo picked up the scent of hidden DVDs including the Bourne Ultimatum and Underdog during raids on three retail outlets in the city.
Three people were arrested and charged with trademark counterfeiting.
"Man's best friend has become a DVD counterfeiter's worst nightmare," said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.
The labradors were trained by a handler who usually teaches dogs to find bombs.
Whereas before Hollywood bosses would have invested big money on canine talent like Lassie or Rin Tin Tin, nowadays piracy is a huge threat to the movie business. Malaysia imprinted their paws in plaster in a Hollywood-style tribute Lucky and Flo are owned by the Motion Picture Association, which spent US $17,000 on training them.
Although they can sniff the chemicals used to make CDs and DVDs, they cannot distinguish between genuine and fake discs.
The reason why they are so effective is that they can lead handlers to boxes of discs labelled as other items.
Security officials may take a whole day to examine such containers, but it takes Lucky and Flo just 10 minutes to sniff out discs.
The dogs are fresh from a stint in Malaysia, which proved so successful that local media reported movie pirates had offered a bounty to anyone who eliminated them.
Since March, they have uncovered 1.9m DVDs, three DVD replicating machines and 97 compact disc burners, and 26 people were arrested on suspicion of copyright violations.
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MPAA trained the dogs and police are using them to find people that are carrying CDs? Not illegal CDs, but even CDs....
Is carrying a homemade CD enough to consitute "Probable cause to search"? I guess it all has to do with a "person's reasonable expectation of privacy".
Silly to say the least....scary to say the most.
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