Night-vision Cameras and Dogs Assist in the Fight Against Movie Piracy

The word "pirate" has taken on a whole new meaning within the last few years. What happened the the pirate with the parrot on his shoulder? Perhaps they are offended by the illegal pirates that are recording movies in movie theaters, and are now getting caught. No, a cannon strapped on to a pirate ship is not putting this illegal pirating of movies to an end. The solution? Night-vision goggles.

According to Reuters, cinemas in Malaysia are cracking down on the pirating of hit movies in their theaters. Through the use of night-vision goggles, ushers are able to scan the dark theater and spot anybody using a camera or cell phone to illegally record a copyrighted movie. In fact, seventeen people have been caught within the last two months recording Hollywood blockbusters. The Motion Picture Association has been training Malaysian ushers on this new technique of catching somebody trying to make a duplicate of a movie.

Malaysia's association manager, Nor Hayati Yahaya, said to Reuters that "All of the cases were spotted with night-vision goggles." He later says the effort has been very successful.

A year ago, Malaysia began free-trade talks with the United States, and since then local Malaysian authorities have a major series of raids on retailers and producers of illegal DVDs. In an effort to help stop these distributors, two dogs who are trained to sniff out DVDs were brought to Malaysia. The dogs, Flo and Lucky, are responsible for finding more than one million DVDs and putting an end to a fake DVD crime ring.

In America, the MPAA, or the Motion Picture Associated of America, has made it their mission to put an end to movie piracy. According to the MPAA's website, MPAA.org, "people often download movies on the Internet because they believe they are anonymous and will not be held responsible for their actions". The MPAA says pirates and their affiliates will be caught. The MPAA are also offering "possible" rewards to those who report a pirate lab consisting of at least ten DVD Burner towers at one location. To be eligible for a reward, these towers must be used to create unauthorized copies of MPAA copyrighted movies.

Only ten percent of pirated movies are not being played in theaters. A first-time violator faces up to three and five years in a prison, and a $250,000 fine.

If you believe you know of any illegal pirating activity, call the MPAA's nationwide hotline at (800) 371-9884 to report it. The phone line is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.