One of the oldest tricks in the file-sharing world is to relabel material as something else in order to annoy downloaders. While many tactics have been tried over the years the one just employed by a Norwegian movie director has to go down as the most outrageous yet. Those downloading Johan Kaos's movie from The Pirate Bay get to see 10 minutes of the production for free, followed by an estimated one hour and twenty minutes of the director's shaven scrotum.

In years gone by downloading material from file-sharing applications could be a risky occupation. Traditional file-sharing networks such as FastTrack (Kazaa) and Gnutella (LimeWire) became dumping grounds for millions of junk files, many incorrectly named, to the point where shutting them down was the only thing that could save them.

These days things are very much different. Although BitTorrent sharing is carried out mainly in software clients, torrent files themselves are generally obtained from indexes, or torrent sites as most people know them. Not only do these sites carry comments from users which can be read in order to avoid downloading trash, many are policed by teams of moderators who remove junk, fake and malicious files.

But despite the superior moderation of today’s ecosystem, it is still entirely possible to get a file onto a torrent site that isn’t entirely what it seems. That has just been achieved to hilarious effect by film director Johan Kaos, who got past the moderators on the world’s most infamous torrent site to play a never-seen-before prank on its users.

The joke involved Kaos’ just released movie ‘Pornopung‘ (Norwegian slang for “shaven balls”), a Norwegian comedy featuring two pick up artists who share their tricks with a ‘novice’ called Christian, enabling him to become more attractive to the opposite sex.

Those downloading the movie from The Pirate Bay got a decent copy to begin with, but little did they know that it was Kaos himself seeding the video. The director had heavily modified the rest of the movie, as they would soon discover. As can be seen below, after the first 10 mins or so the camera switches to Kaos who filmed himself chatting in his bathroom. Then things get very much worse.

“Hehe. I thought the movie was going to end up on The Pirate Bay sooner or later anyway, so why not be a little ahead?” Kaos told Aftenposten.no.

“The film clip was recorded as an impulse once I sat on the toilet. Actually, I considered filling the remaining 80 minutes by filming my butt, but then I realized how exceptionally bad it was going to be, aesthetically that is.”

So, confronted with the problem of filming something more pleasing to the eye than his own rear end, Kaos said he landed on an idea to delight file-sharers for the remaining 80 minutes of the movie.

“I created a clean-shaven scrotum,” Kaos said. “A little more thematically relevant and easily more aesthetically pleasing, it seems, at least in my opinion.”

Despite his memorable cultural contribution to The Pirate Bay, Kaos says he bears no animosity towards file-sharers.

“In no way do I bear any grudges against people who download my film. It’s just a compliment that people want to see it. I would obviously prefer it if they chose to see it in theaters, since for me as a director it has the most to do with the movie and the best movie experience,” he said.

The director, who is currently backpacking in Laos, says that reaction to the prank has been largely positive.

“Most of the feedback I’ve gotten so far has been from people who have laughed themselves to death, but there have also been some who have been pissed. Well, they certainly can’t accuse me of having given them something they didn’t ask for, when they download a movie called Pornopung,” Kaos concludes.

Anyone wanting to see a 10 min promo of Pornopung followed by 80 mins of Kaos’ shaven extremities can do so here. Have fun.