[Woody Taylor]

http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/08/fake-dvd-sniffing-dogs/

I thought this was interesting...dogs that have been trained to detect counterfeit DVDs.

I actually did countefeiting and gray market investigation for my company for a few years. I hadn't considered this kind of thing...but it strikes me as a pretty interesting need, particularly now and in the future.

Edited to add the source link:

http://www.netscape.co.uk/technology/8.html?DOGS TRAINED TO SNIFF OUT FAKE DVDS

 

[Mike Schoonbrood]

I lived in the middle east (Dubai) in the early 90's before they introduced copyright laws, every video you bought was fake, if you got the really cheap videos it'd have stuff like "property of walt disney world..." scroll along the bottom of the screen LOL. It was impossible to buy a VHS that wasn't a fake, the good quality videos were by Hobo Video :lol: When they introduced copyright laws they gave the video stores 6 months to blow their stock, you could pick up 3 movies for $5, crappy quality, but watchable! I thought it was pretty interesting at how big the pirated video market was over in those places. If you wanted a video game or software for your PC you basically went to the store, told em what game you wanted to buy, then sat there n waited for em to copy the game for you :lol: You couldn't buy legally imported games, but you could get any game you wanted for less than $10.

Not really anything to do with dogs, but DVD piracy reminded me of that.

 

[Woody Taylor]

Yeah, you would be amazed at the garbage out there. NEVER buy electronics "on sight" off of eBay (use about the same rules you'd use to buy a puppy, now that I think about it). Around 80% of that stuff is gray (not warrantied) or black (not something I'm making up). PM me if any of you ever find a good deal on consumer electronics/computers on the internet and want a second opinion...I know many of those cats, and might be able to save you some grief. It's a seedy marketplace. It's worth a trip to Shanghai just to go to the counterfeiter's market...or the night markets in Hong Kong and Taipei...just amazing. Very ferocious capitalists in those places!!!

Yes Mike...Amsterdam, Dubai, Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, City of Industry (Los Angeles) will be the primary sites for that kind of stuff. You Netherlands folks may have a business opportunity here--I bet Schipol would be interested in product-specific detectors, if they don't have them already. Interesting.