According to industry officials, an anti-piracy dog by the name of Paddy has made a large bust in Malaysia, uncovering 35,000 pirated discs in a few warehouses in the region.
The MPA added in a statement that the raids occurred last week in southern Johor. Paddy is trained to detect chemicals in DVD-R discs.
“Paddy led enforcement officers on a successful weekend operation to shut down the supply lines of pirated movie DVDs in the Malaysian state of Johor,” read the statement.
“Post-raid investigations revealed that two of the targets were actively involved in exporting pirated DVDs to Singapore.”
After the raids, 6 factories were shut down and brand new titles such as “Terminator Salvation”, “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian”, “Angels and Demons” and “Star Trek” were seized.
“This is a clear signal to the pirates that we will not waver in our efforts to shut them down,” continued Mohamad Roslan Mahayudin, director-general of enforcement for the Malaysian ministry.
“We are glad to hear that Paddy’s skills are being put to good use against the large, organised network of pirates involved in exporting illegal pirated DVDs to Singapore,” concluded Mike Ellis, the MPA’s Asia-Pacific managing director.
Result for: asia
It’s no secret that certain elements in the US Federal Government would like to see all copyright infringement criminalized and the Department of Justice used as an enforcement agency for intellectual property owners. What gets less publicity is the work by the office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) to similarly effect the law in other countries. Earlier this week the USTR’s office issued a press release declaring victory in one such case against China, but behind their celebration is actually a significant defeat.
Although the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreed with US claims that China isn’t living up to their obligation to protect foreign copyrights under the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). The portion of the treaty in question requires that all participants at least criminalize willful commercial infringement of intellectual property.
Specifically, a WTO panel concluded that the US hadn’t profided any real evidence since it was all in the form of newspaper clippings. According to the WTO report, “the Panel does not ascribe any weight to the evidence in the press articles and finds that, even if it did, the information that these press articles contain is inadequate to demonstrate what is typical or usual in China for the purposes of the relevant treaty obligation.”
The report further admonished the US for substituting claims of bad behavior for evidence of specific wrong doing. The report says “A complaining party may not simply submit evidence and expect the panel to divine from it a claim of WTO-inconsistency. Nor may a complaining party simply allege facts without relating them to its legal arguments.”
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Result for: asia
AsianWeek, a newspaper for Asian-Americans, has become the largest US paper to drop its print editions to move to online only.
The 30-year old paper has a circulation of roughly 60,000 and will go online only beginning on Monday.
AsianWeek president and editor James Fang wrote in a letter to all readers that, “There are fewer major newspapers, fewer newspaper readers and fewer newspaper advertisers than ever before. Asian Pacific Americans have led the way in the digital revolution, migrating away from print media and into receiving their news and information electronically.”
“To reflect these changing times, AsianWeek will cease regular newspaper publication immediately. We will continue to publish online and in special newspaper editions.”
