If you can't beat 'em, hire em! That seems to be Warner Bros' strategy when it comes to file sharing. TorrentFreak recently discovered that Warner UK is offering college students an internship for those "with knowledge of file-sharing networks to assist in the company’s ongoing anti-piracy efforts." Here is what WB wrote in their job description:
During the 12 month internship, duties will include: monitoring local Internet forums and IRC for pirated WB and NBCU content and in order to gather information on pirate sites, pirate groups and other pirate activities; finding new and maintaining existing accounts on private sites; scanning for links to hosted pirated WB and NBCU content and using tools to issue takedown requests; maintaining and developing bots for Internet link scanning system (training provided); preparing sending of infringement notices and logging feedback; performing trap purchases of pirated product and logging results; inputting pirate hard goods data and other intelligence into the forensics database; selecting local keywords and submitting local filenames for monitoring and countermeasure campaigns and periodically producing research documents on piracy related technological developments. Various training will be provided.
I have to hand it to them, the strategy of recruiting college students is a wise one because they surely know a lot more about file sharing then anybody else. But, there is a bit of a moral dilemma of working for people who are trying to hinder something that you actively do (even though it's illegal). WB aren't being cheapos about it, though. The one-year internship will pay £17,500 (which translates to roughly $26,743 American dollars, not bad at all for an internship. Here is the PDF (via TorrentFreak) if you are actually interested in applying.
Update 11-2012: Being that this post is about college students, we know some of you are looking for a career in music and that might mean attending a music college. While its certainly not mandatory, some areas of music are hard as hell to learn unless you go to school. Take Audio Engineering for example. It's way easier to have someone teach you how gear works that to turn knobs that mean nothing to you for a few years. So, if you're into the idea of a music career and are not a musician, going to a music school is a great way to make the leap. If you're a musician, stop reading this and go write some damn songs.
