One of the world's biggest entertainment groups is seeking a student intern to spy on filesharers and monitor messageboards for "pirate groups and other pirate activities". Warner Bros Entertainment UK is offering £17,500 for the 12-month position, based in London.

Details of the job have been posted at the University of Manchester's careers website, where it is listed as "Anti-Piracy Intern". A century ago, this would have been a position aboard a merchant navy ship: now it involves lurking in blog comments sections and on IRC chat. Beginning in July 2010, the lucky student will be tasked with all the dirty work of a major entertainment group in 2010. Besides monitoring internet forums and private BitTorrent sites, the student will be expected to make "trap" purchases of illegal material, to issue copyright infringement notices, and even to develop automated bots that will scan for pirated files.

Warner Bros are looking for applicants studying computer-related degrees, particularly with "internet experience, ideally including peer protocols ... web forums and newsgroups". While FTP and IRC knowledge is a bit more specialised, it's essentially a description of any 18-year-old geek.

Of course, quite a few 18-year-old geeks have downloaded an illegal Lady Gaga song here or there. And so Warner Bros' job listing doesn't make any reference to applicants' chequered or not-so-chequered pasts. After all, what better applicants than those who have trolled Rapidshare blogs for the new Caribou album, or who fire up BitTorrent whenever they set about burning a new mix CD? Besides, filesharing advocacy groups would love to have a friend on the "inside". TorrentFreak has invited its readers to apply for the internship and spy on the spies.

Be quick! Applications close tomorrow, 31 March.