Intellectual Property Law

Disc-sniffing Dog 'Manny' Dies; Cause Under Investigation

By Ryan Singel, Kevin Poulsen, Sarah Lai Stirland, Kim Zetter, and David Kravets

The Motion Picture Association of America is ordering flags flown at half staff at government buildings, animal shelters, Hollywood studios and at the world's movie theaters after the death of one of its disc-sniffing dogs.

Manny, a yellow Labrador retriever trained to sniff polycarbonate and other chemicals in optical discs, died nine days ago in Malaysia, the MPAA announced Monday. Manny, who also had a penchant for retrieving tennis balls and slobbering, was 1.

An autopsy was being conducted.

The deceased was one of two dogs the Malaysian government was training to become a country's first canine anti-piracy unit under its Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs. The dogs, supplied by the MPAA, cannot tell the difference between real and counterfeited DVDs, but alert to hidden piles of discs.

"We are deeply saddened by the news of Manny?s passing,? said Mike Ellis, an MPAA president in Asia.

The Malaysian trade ministry, he said, was investigating the cause of death "which should be clear once the post-mortem results come through."

THREAT LEVEL chief Kevin Poulsen suggests that Manny might have bit the big one after getting a whiff of too many Live Free or Die Hard discs that began piling up in illicit warehouses. Apparently, pirates couldn't give them away.

Manny is survived by his black Labrador retriever partner Paddy and their disc-sniffing black Labrador retriever counterparts Lucky and Flo. Lucky and Flo, the world's first anti-piracy pooches pictured here, have been hunting the world in search of counterfeited DVDs.

Pirates have reportedly put a bounty on Lucky and Flo's noses.

All four dogs were produced by the MPAA. Manny and Paddy, trained by the MPAA in Ireland, were brought to Malaysia in February.

In Malaysia, Lucky and Flo have assisted in 35 raids, leading to the arrest of 26 people and the discovery of about 1.9 million pirated discs and 97 burner towers, the MPAA said.

See Also:

• Entertainment Industry Leaned On Los Angeles Politicos to Declare ...
• Isohunt Founder at Center of US Torrent-Tracking Legal Battle
• TorrentSpy Won't Pay $111 Million Court Order, Lawyer Says
• TorrentSpy Shutters in Wake of Court Order

Full post as published by Threat Level on June 09, 2008 (boomark / email).