You do the crime and pay the time. Or an exceedingly large charge. That’s just how it works in civilised society. Except if you happen to be this one software pirate who’s been given a particularly strange punishment. The man, named only as Jakub F, will be spared having to pay extensive damages – only if a film denouncing piracy which he was forced to produce gets watched by enough people.

The 30-year-old bloke made this weird out-of-court settlement with the firms whose software he pirated after being convicted by a Czech court. In return for the video, they kindly agreed not to sue him. The firms weren’t just small dodgy ones you’ve barely heard of either. They included Microsoft, HBO Europe, Sony Music and Twentieth Century Fox. The financial damage amounted to thousands of pounds, with Microsoft alone valuing its losses at the equivalent of £148,000.

Obviously, some small-time guy sat at home in his flat behind a computer screen couldn’t afford to repay all that. So the Business Software Alliance, which represented Microsoft, came up with the grand scheme. Along with a small payment, in order for the firm’s promise not to sue to be valid, the video had to viewed at least 200,000 times within two months of its publication this week. That’s...quite a lot.

In the video, Jakub warned other small-time pirates that they could be caught, just like him. Presumably the idea is other people will be dissuaded from sharing that copy of Photoshop with their mates and go out to buy it instead. “The Story of my Piracy” has already exceeded its views target but just in case you fancy a little moral lesson in Czech (and why wouldn’t you), watch and learn below.