Lars Ulrich On Metallica's Latest Album Being Leaked Online: It's Fine, We're Happy

from the what-have-you-done-with-the-real-lars-ulrich? dept

We've noted that Metallica has basically spent nearly the last decade trying to recover from the damaged reputation the band brought on itself when drummer Lars Ulrich freaked out about Napster and started suing. While the band has been trying to become more online friendly with its latest album release, you still had to wonder how Ulrich would react to the album being leaked online before the official release date. Some might assume he'd pull a Guns N' Roses and try to send the FBI after the leakers -- but, instead it looks like Ulrich has learned at least part of the lesson: don't freak out at your fans for music getting online, even before the official release. In fact, he seems almost mellow about the leak:

"It's 2008 and it's part of how it is these days, so it's fine. We're happy."

It's tough to tell if he's legitimately "happy" about these fans, or if he's just learned enough to grin and bear it for the time being -- but it's nice to see that he's at least learned something since the Napster debacle.

Filed Under: lars ulrich, leaks, metallica

On Second Thought, Perhaps Stephenie Meyer Doesn't Get Online Fans

from the so-much-for-that dept

It really was just a month ago that we were writing about how super successful fiction author Stephenie Meyer was showing exactly how to embrace online fans, giving them free reign to build on her works and do more with them to build up her own popularity. As I was writing that post, I have to admit, in the back of my head, I wondered if I would later be writing a post about an anti-fan decision -- but even I'm surprised at how quickly it happened.

Apparently, a draft of the fifth book in her Twilight Series was leaked online, and Meyer is so upset b the ordeal that she's saying the book is on hold and may never be finished. Instead, she's telling people to consider the fourth book to be the end of the series.

As a writer, you can certainly understand the sentiment. She wants the final release to be as good as it can be, and that means getting the chance to do full rewrites, edits and other things to make sure that it's as good as can be. But, at the same time, she also has to understand that her fans are going to clamor for such a leak anyway. It shows how much they love her work and how badly they want to keep up on the latest story that they're willing to either leak or download the leak. It's just a sign of how strong their feeling is towards her work -- and her response is to punish them for it? That seems wrong.

Her true fans will still buy the completed work, should it ever come out. They want the official version and the leaked version. Why do you think so many music fans rush to get "leaked" copies of demo tapes of bands they love? People like to see how these things evolve and change over time, as it gives them an even closer connection to the work itself. I can sympathize that Meyers is upset by this, and that she might be concerned about the impact on the final story, but she might want to rethink her initial reaction, and realize that this is hardly something to be upset about. It's a sign of how much people care about her work.

Filed Under: books, fans, leaks, stephenie meyer, twilight

FBI Apparently Has Nothing Better To Do Than Arrest GNR Album Leaker

from the what,-no-more-phones-to-tap? dept

Back in June, we were bothered by the fact that the FBI was wasting its time investigating a blogger who had posted some unreleased Guns N' Roses tracks on his site. Music gets leaked all the time, and it's difficult to see why this is an FBI matter in any form. Turns out that the FBI takes its GNR leaks seriously. They've now arrested the blogger for posting the songs to his website. This seems questionable for a variety of reasons. First, why is the FBI involved at all in what should be a civil matter, not a criminal one? Why is it so important to track down this particular leaker, given how many music leaks happen all the time? And, how, honestly, is this going to hurt the band in any way? The music was going to get leaked sooner or later anyway. It's not going to change who will and who will not buy the CD. And, most importantly, doesn't the FBI have more important things to be working on?

Filed Under: civil, criminal, fbi, guns and roses, leaks

Will U2 Manager's Next Rant Blame Bono For Leaked U2 Tracks?

from the blame-game-come-uppance dept

In the past year or so, U2's manager, Paul McGuinness has lashed out at pretty much everyone, other than those in the music industry, for the evils of file sharing. His main target was ISPs, but also device manufacturers, search engines, social networks and many, many others. It wasn't long after this that U2 lead singer Bono more or less agreed with his manager -- though using more diplomatic language. However, as a few folks are joyfully noting, it appears that the only one to blame for the leak of U2's most recent tracks may in fact be Bono himself. Apparently, someone was passing by Bono's beach villa in the south of France and heard the stereo playing incredibly loudly with new U2 tracks, so he recorded them and put them up on YouTube.

To be honest, this story has a lot of questionable elements to it, and little to back it up. So it could be entirely false. Even if it's true, it's difficult to see how the quality could be even halfway decent. Either way, though, it does show how silly it is to blame others. Instead, why not look to examples like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails who have shown that when you control the leak, it can work to your advantage in a rather massive way?

Filed Under: bono, leaks, paul mcguinness, u2

Who Can You Sue When It's Your Own Copy Protection That Hurt Your Reputation?

from the sue-everyone! dept

Video game maker Ubisoft has a rather long history of employing crappy DRM (and then even using someone else's code to crack their DRM when it caused problems for legitimate customers). However, this latest story involving a Ubisoft copy protection scheme may be the most bizarre. Chris Gruel writes in to let us know that Ubisoft is suing the CD duplicator firm it used to produce the video game Assassin's Creed, claiming that employees from that firm were responsible for the game leaking to the internet. It appears they have pretty good evidence that this did, in fact, happen (the leak was traced to an IP address controlled by an employee of the firm, and a copy of the game was found at that employee's home). So you can understand why they'd be upset about that (though, they had to realize that it would be pirated eventually).

However, here's where the story gets bizarre. Because Ubisoft was afraid that this might happen, the pre-release copy it sent to the CD duplicator included (on purpose!) a bug that would crash the game partway through. That was the copy that the employee leaked, so Ubisoft is complaining that this leak harmed their reputation, because people claimed the game was really buggy and crashed. Try to keep this straight in your mind here. Ubisoft put their own (crude, yes) DRM on the game because they were afraid it would leak. The game was leaked, and the DRM acted exactly as intended, and thus Ubisoft's reputation was harmed.

It makes you shake your head in wonder.

If Ubisoft had not included this DRM, then it would apparently have less to complain about. Thus, I think the only logical conclusion is that Ubisoft should be suing itself for including such damaging DRM on its own pre-release copies of Assassin's Creed.

Filed Under: copy protection, drm, lawsuits, leaks, reputation, video games
Companies: ubisoft