Hounding Out Piracy: Operation Double Trouble

• Author: Elizabeth March
• Position: WIPO Magazine Editorial Staff, Communications and Public Outreach Division

Malaysia's new champions in the fight against film and music piracy are only three years old, but are already making their mark. Meet Flo and Lucky.

The two black Labradors, believed to be the first dogs ever trained to detect polycarbonate and other chemicals used in the manufacture of optical discs, are being deployed by Malaysian enforcement officers at border crossings and cargo storage centers to uncover consignments of pirated CDs and DVDs. While they cannot distinguish by scent between a legitimate disc and a pirate copy, the dogs are proving highly successful at sniffing out discs in hidden compartments or unregistered shipments.

Nick-named Operation Double Trouble, Malaysia's ground-breaking project is backed by the Motion Pictures Association (MPA), which groups six of the big Hollywood movie companies. The MPA has invested US$17,000 in the dogs, including eight months training in Northern Ireland with a handler who usually teaches sniffer dogs to find bombs.

Seizing headlines

The doggy duo has already gained celebrity status. At a press briefing in March at Malaysia's biggest air cargo hangar, they showed off their skills to assembled journalists, winning wide coverage in the international media. The dogs continued to make headlines over the next few weeks, as they led raids in Johor Bahru and in Kuala Lumpur, resulting in 14 arrests and the seizure of 1.3 million pirated DVDs.

Flo and Lucky began an initial month long trial in March to evaluate the effectiveness of introducing dog units into Malaysia's enforcement divisions. "It's cost-effective, and in terms of time, it's very effective too," Malaysia's Minister of Domestic Trade, Shafie Apdal, commented, as he described how the dogs took a mere ten minutes to check the contents of containers which enforcement officers would need all day to search.

The MPA's senior vice president and Asia-Pacific regional director, Mike Ellis, highlighted the discovery in recent raids of child pornography alongside pirated movies. "Piracy is frequently linked to other insidious activities," he said. "Consumers should be aware that their purchases of...