KUALA LUMPUR (AP) - Malaysia hopes to obtain special dogs trained in Ireland to sniff out bootlegged DVDs as part of growing efforts to combat movie piracy in a country accused of being among the world's top producers of illegal discs, officials said Wednesday.
The dogs will form the Malaysian government's first canine anti-piracy unit and will be a permanent replacement for Lucky and Flo, two Labradors trained in Ireland that have been temporarily loaned to Malaysia by the U.S.-based Motion Picture Association, said Iskandar Halim, a senior enforcement official in the Domestic Trade Ministry.
Malaysia hopes to have a new pair of Labradors trained in Ireland with the association's help by next year, Iskandar said.
Lucky and Flo have helped Malaysian officials uncover more than 1.3 million counterfeit DVDs and CDs worth some 15 million ringgit (US$4.43 million; ?3.28 million) in nationwide raids on warehouses and shops since their arrival in Malaysia in March, Iskandar said.
The two dogs had a brief stint in the Philippines last month, but have returned to Malaysia and are slated to leave in August.
The movie organization has also helped train Malaysian cinema ushers and personnel to prevent movie pirates from illegally recording movies, said Nor Hayati Yahaya, the MPA's manager for Malaysia.
When a big movie first opens, some ushers check people's bags for cameras or wear night-vision goggles to detect people secretly recording the movie, a tactic that has proven effective in Malaysia and other countries in recent years, Nor Hayati said.
Nineteen people in Malaysia have been handed to police on suspicion of illegally recording movies in cinemas this year. Ten were caught in the first 10 days of the opening of "Spider-Man 3," but none has been formally charged yet, Nor Hayati said.
Pirated copies of recent hits such as "Spider-Man 3" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" are available in Malaysia, but are suspected of having been recorded in Hong Kong or mainland China, Nor Hayati said.
Malaysia is among the world's top illegal movie disc producers and exporters, the MPA and the U.S. government have said. According to the Malaysian government, 5 million discs were seized in more than 2,000 raids nationwide last year.