Anti-Piracy Jobs From £10/hr to ‘Let’s Talk ££’, there’s no shortage in the UK *TorrentFreak

Along with the explosion of online piracy services over the past two decades, new anti-piracy companies have sprung up offering to quell the flames.

Most have their own specialties and target markets, with some even claiming to be 99% or 100% effective in one area or another. The reality is that no sane person invests time and money in a company whose mission is to ensure their own demise.

Anti-piracy services are effectively the weed killer and deodorizer of the internet – they can leave everything clean and fresh today, but there’s always a new and sometimes smelly infestation tomorrow. The battle never ends.

Nowadays, the fight against piracy is an integral part of the business strategies of entertainment companies. In the same way that Hollywood hires the best accountants to ensure that the least amount of tax is paid whenever possible, the removal of the availability of pirated content is considered essential in the quest for the greatest possible profit. To that end, filmmakers, record labels, TV companies, and movie chains need to hire more and more people to make it happen.

In the UK, there are currently more job vacancies than unemployed. This week, we scoured recruitment sites for interesting positions. We expected one or two in the anti-piracy market but, to our surprise, we found many, including some we didn’t expect to be mentioned in public.

Movies and Music

Given the size of its operation, it wasn’t much of a surprise to see Disney announce a role described as “Analyst, Digital Media Antipiracy.”

“This position will be part of a team responsible for providing anti-piracy services with a focus on combating online piracy of movies, television and live events related to Disney properties worldwide, working closely with industry associations, outside attorneys, and Disney businesses and legal teams.

“Duties for this position include supporting anti-piracy efforts, researching hacking technologies, websites and apps, tracking hacking data, providing regular reports on hacking trends, evaluating potential anti-piracy service providers and managing existing providers,” the listing reads.

Disney is looking for someone with a working knowledge of the DMCA, a business or computer science degree, and a “solid understanding of the landscape of online piracy sites,” including live streaming sites — both pirated and legitimate.

Disney isn’t publicly committing to a salary for this 12-month fixed-term contract, so if music is more your thing, Universal Music Group is also looking for a new hire.

Reporting to the Vice President of Global Content Protection for the company, the position of “Content Protection Representative” is one that the successful candidate may work from home. Supporting UMG’s global content protection strategies and helping to enforce UMG’s copyrights worldwide, the successful candidate will be familiar with anti-piracy and copyright issues and will speak a second language.

Knowledge of Blockchain, NFT (Non-Fungible Tokens) and Metaverse technologies is desirable for five days a week, Wednesday through Sunday. Like Disney, UMG prefers not to mention a salary for this position.

Site blocking gurus are needed

The position of Anti-Piracy Analyst is offered by the trademark protection/anti-piracy company Corsearch. The successful candidate will have previous anti-piracy experience, a good understanding of the piracy landscape (including BitTorrent and streaming), and excellent “web scraping” skills.

“Collect, collate, research and analyze data from a wide range of sources, including internal systems, to produce accurate, timely and complete records to facilitate the continued effectiveness of site blocking actions globally integer”, indicates the list.

Again, salary available is not mentioned, but given how important site blocking is to entertainment businesses, we assume this Cardiff-based position is paid with that in mind. Then, just like London buses, when one site blocking job comes along, suddenly there’s another.

Want pirate IPTV blocking?

Friend MTS, the anti-piracy company working with the Premier League to identify pirate IPTV streams so they can be blocked by ISPs, needs reinforcements in its team. The position of “Senior C++ Algorithm Engineer – Content Identification” suggests that the candidate will need to program a computer and be very, very good at adding.

“We are looking for an experienced and enthusiastic Software Engineer to join our expanding Content Identification and Watermarking team working on automatic content recognition and covert video watermarking technologies in a real-time distributed anti-piracy system used by many many major global media companies from satellite/cable broadcasters to sports rights holders and movie studios,” says Friend MTS.

“The position requires people with commercial experience in C++, with a good understanding of how to approach complex and mathematically difficult problems in software engineering.”

Ami MTS prefers not to give a salary indication, but in recent weeks the company has advertised several other positions, so there could be more than one opportunity. The company has an office in central Birmingham close to several trendy bars – ideal for quenching thirst after the Premier League lockdown ended on Saturday. And the Sunday. And in the middle of the week.

MUSO needs an anti-piracy chief

Anti-piracy firm MUSO regularly hits the news with piracy reports and analysis and at the end of last month began the process of recruiting a new ‘content protection officer’. Candidates will need a solid understanding and experience of the anti-piracy industry for digital content.

“This varied role will be responsible for line management of the content protection team, project delivery, client interaction and process development,” the announcement reads.

MUSO is offering a salary of up to £55,000 a year and the successful candidate will be able to work from home while trying out the company’s four-day working week trial.

This forward-looking work program is also available for a new ‘data analyst’ who, for up to £40,000 a year, will help media rights holders, broadcasters and VOD platforms to ‘understand the global demand for movie and TV titles, unearthing emerging trends and hitting titles that previously flew under the radar.

Fighting Movie Camming on the Front Lines

Finally, positions are available at Cineworld, the second largest cinema company in the world. Both require employees to monitor customers to make sure they aren’t hacking the latest blockbusters. If cameras are discovered, they should be dealt with in accordance with Cineworld’s Anti-Piracy Policy. If necessary, “appropriate measures” must be taken.

When not on the front line fighting piracy, candidates will need to monitor picture quality, sound quality, and screen temperature. Eyes should also be alert to any disturbance from customers, but if they complain, customers should be treated politely.

In addition to being passionate, resourceful and confident in communications, the successful candidate will be expected to promote membership programs to customers – when not working behind the bar or handling food in the kitchen, of course. An ability to work under pressure is an understandable requirement – the job also requires the daily cleaning of restrooms, back and front areas of the house, screens and cinema seats.

This important job in the film industry pays the princely sum of £10.05 an hour and the job of supervisor pays just 50p more.

Given that one of these positions is in Epsom, Surrey, where renting a one-bedroom apartment costs at least £250 per week, the successful candidate could end up with just £20 per day for survive, barely covering food and utility bills. in today’s environment. This may at least partly explain why the UK has so many vacancies at the moment.

That being said, Cineworld has billions in debt, so things could be worse.