Help Wanted: “Looking for someone to spy on file-sharers – inquire within”

Iowa tech company BayTPS trying to recruit P2P spies, and yet even at $70,000 “rats” are still hard to come by.

The DesMoines Register has an interesting article about its newest entrant to the Iowa tech scene, and how it has gone begging for applicants to jobs that it has found difficult to fill.

The company is BayTSP, the source of frequent icon tray “blinking” on the magic IP blocker that is is PeerGuardian.

BayTSP, a San Jose, California-based corporation, is marketed as the “…leading provider of anti-piracy and copyright tracking services to the digital media market.”

Its patented technology “…offers copyright owners the most accurate means available to detect and prevent unauthorized distribution of digital music, images and movies on websites, newsgroups and peer-to-peer networks such as Napster and Gnutella.”

From their site:

The theft of copyrighted content – MP3s, video, still images, text, trademarks, or logos- is one of the largest threats to the growth and overall welfare of the Internet. Digital pirates are stealing online works at an alarming rate and illegally redistributing this material across the Internet without any fear of reprisal. Protect your Intellectual Property now and get the only solution to help you brand, track, and prosecute the theft of your valuable online content.
The theft of digital content – music, video, movies, software programs is one of the largest threats to the growth of the Internet. As file-sharing and trading networks become increasingly easier to use, the consumer’s attitude has changed from “I need to buy this” to “I’ll just download it from the Net.”

So what is BayTSP’s solution to piracy?

BayTSP’s systems find the pirated content, send the infringement notices to the infringer and their ISP, and make sure they comply and remove the pirated files. Alternatively, a secure management console is available for in-house processing.
The information on the individual sharing the files, including IP address, Internet Service Provider, location, etc., is collected into an infringement database. “Take Down” notices that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act can automatically be sent with a rules based engine, or customers can choose to screen the lists manually through the Customer Information Management System (CIMS) software application. The database is accessible world wide and reports can be generated by any metric to track reduction progress including infringement results by title, country, ISP, and P2P or public network.
BayTSP’s systems continually monitor the infringers for compliance with the take down notice, and record when it was removed. BayTSP’s customers have reported that eight out of 10 individuals caught sharing specific intellectual property are not seen doing so again. In addition customers can request “evidence packages” that include a digital copy of the pirated content and background materials needed to take additional legal steps.

Hmm, and their having trouble recruiting why? Maybe it’s because its nothing more than a glorified snitching position where people’s hesitations are attempted to be bought and paid for with good old American greenbacks.

The jobs are said to be paying between $21,000 and $70,000 annually, with no mention of whether it’s the amount of skill or number of 12yo Limewire user busts that determines the rate of compensation.

So what is BayTSP doing about the shortage of applicants?

“We’ve had to be a lot more proactive about it,” hitting the university and community college circuit to recruit workers as well as advertising the positions, said Jim Graham, a spokesman for BayTPS, based in Los Gatos.

Maybe what they need is some sort of armed forces recruiter type campaign whereby they have a call-to-arms for a “war on piracy.” They could even offer medals for the varying levels of “kills.”

Anybody over the age of 18 for instance, earns you an extra point, if they’re not wheelchair bound that’s another, and single without kids would get you even more. It’s the perfect lawsuit fodder they’re looking for after all.

I can see the poster now, “The copyright protection army wants you!” Instead of Uncle Sam pointing a finger at you it can be RIAA Chairwoman Hilary Rosen.

Now if only there wasn’t that messy business of ratting people out.

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