The UK-based Federation Against Copyright Theft(FACT), FedEx and the UK's customsdepartment are working together to fight DVD piracy.

As part of a project promoted by the Motion Picture Association ofAmerica (MPAA), FACT has trained twoblack Labradors to identify DVDs in boxes, envelopes or otherpackaging that could be smuggled in by pirate networks.

The dogs were trained by an expert for eight months.

The two dogs, Lucky and Flo, were put to thetest recently at FedEx's UK hub at Stansted Airport, and successfullyidentified packages containing DVDs.

"This is the first time dogs have been usedanywhere in the world to search for counterfeit DVDs and the results wereamazing," said Raymond Leinster,director general of FACT. "With the cooperation and assistance of FedExand Customs we were able to properly test the dogs in a live situation andprove that they can work in a busy working environment."

Added Mary Callahan, director optical diskoperations, worldwide anti-piracy for the MPAA, added: "The MPAA is delighted with theimmediate success of this initiative which has opened up a new and highlyeffective means of detection for counterfeit discs."