The 1st of April is the one day when it is expected of you to pull a prank on someone you know - and on the general public. That is precisely what happened yesterday. Several companies did this and we were more than happy to report on their pranks. Google for example announced it would change its name to Topeka, that Gmail suffered a vowel outage, or that the Google Maps team uncovered a new dimension using Street View.

Yahoo! announced that it’s President and CEO, Carol Bartz is being investigated by the FCC for letting out a curse word during a TV show. That one really had me going. Opera announced its Opera Space Edition, Sophos announced Protection though Distraction, F-Secure announced a Rickrolling protection feature, Intego announced that its packaging would be edible, the EFF announced it is protecting the rights of robots from the future, and Linux Mint announced that it is discontinuing all editions because it struck a deal with Mattel and Microsoft.

All these pranks are nothing compared to the one that popular torrent site Vertor pulled on several anti-piracy groups including the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America). Vertor, in an effort to show them that their bullyin practices are not appreciated, send these outfits boxes filled with condoms.

That’s not all. Vertor also sent them a message: “We wish your parents had used it.” Ouch, that has to hurt.


News of this prank came to light via TorrentFreak, site that specializes in everything torrent-related. The Russian-based team of operators behind Vertor.com told TorrentFreak that this is nothing but a joke – a joke with a serious message though.

“I’m sure that every one of us would want to say something like this to these bloodsuckers, but not everyone has the opportunity to be heard,” an anonymous source from the Vertor team told TorrentFreak.