I have to admit that I'm still confused why the FBI was spending time going around arresting the guy who put up Guns 'N Roses' latest album, rather than focusing on issues that really matter these days. The arrest alone actually led to much more downloading than if they had just let it go. Yet, now, following a guilty plea, the feds are demanding a six-month prison term for the guy. For promoting the band. Considering how much downloads picked up after the news of the arrest broke, why isn't anyone demanding that we put the FBI agents who spent taxpayer money on this behind bars for even longer? Sure, unauthorized sharing of files breaks copyright law, but it's difficult to come up with any reasonable explanation for (a) spending taxpayer money on having the FBI track down and arrest the guy and then (b) sending him to jail. Every album that's released gets leaked online -- and plenty of musicians have learned how to use it to their benefit. That should make it clear that getting your music leaked online isn't about any economic loss. It's all about what sort of business model you choose. So, because Axl Rose chooses a bad business model, some guy who was sharing GNR music needs to go to jail and the FBI and the Feds need to be involved? Doesn't something seem wrong with this picture?

Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses has a funny way of trying to sell his album: his strategy seems to basically revolve around pissing off fans who want to interact with the music. There's been plenty of coverage over the arrest and subsequent guilty plea of a blogger who was actually doing a fantastic job of promoting the new album by leaking it online. Since then, Rose has apparently been unwilling to do much to actually promote the album, other than putting angry rants on various websites. The latest is that he's apparently threatening legal action against Activision for including some GNR songs in Guitar Hero. Apparently no one pointed out to Rose that having songs in Guitar Hero tends to help sell more albums. And, that would be useful for Rose right now, as reports are that his long-awaited album has been a tremendous flop. So, once again, it's worth pointing out that the last thing any musician wants to do these days is appear to be anti-fan.

Ben S. writes in to let us know that the lawyer for Guns N' Roses is now accusing Dr. Pepper of fraud for its well publicized give-away of free bottles of the soft drink along with the release of GNR's Chinese Democracy album. As you're probably aware, the album has been delayed for years, and a Dr. Pepper exec announced earlier this year that if the album actually came out in 2008, the company would give free Dr. Pepper to everyone. The complaint from GNR's lawyer seems to pick up on two points -- which somewhat contradict each other. First, he's upset about the giveaway in that it suggests some sort of endorsement by the band of Dr. Pepper. In some ways, this is similar to the recent dispute between 50 Cent and Taco Bell. Like that case, it's difficult to see the damage done here, as there's no explicit endorsement. However, the second part of the "fraud" complaint seems to be that, given that the promotion went forward, GNR is upset that Dr. Pepper screwed it up. There were apparently problems with the Dr. Pepper website on the day of the promotion, meaning that many people who expected to get a coupon for a free Dr. Pepper might not have gotten one.

The fear, then, is that since Dr. Pepper executed poorly on the giveaway (and people might think that the band was behind the promotion), consumers would be pissed off at the band about not receiving a free Dr. Pepper. I can sort of see the logic, though it's difficult to believe that a GNR fan is suddenly going to hate the band because they didn't get a free can of Dr. Pepper. Also, the claim about GNR being upset about Dr. Pepper's use of GNR in its promotion is undermined by the fact that Axl Rose seemed quite happy by the promotion when it was first announced, writing on the band's site at the time:

"We are surprised and very happy to have the support of Dr. Pepper with our album Chinese Democracy as for us this came totally out of the blue. If there is any involvement with this promotion by our record company or others we are unaware of such at this time. And as some of Buckethead's performances are on our album I'll share my Dr. Pepper with him."

To later claim to be upset that this promotion somehow was a "commercial exploitation" of the bands' rights, seems undermined by that statement.

It will be great when Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy album comes out -- if only because it'll end 14 years of speculation and hype, and maybe we'll stop hearing about it for a while. It's scheduled for release on Sunday (and will be available only at a single chain of stores, thanks to an exclusive agreement), but the band is already streaming the record on its MySpace page. This comes after the band got the FBI to investigate a blogger who posted some songs from the album online a few months ago; the blogger was eventually arrested, and recently plead guilty in a plea bargain. So, like so many people in the music business, it appears that GNR love the power of online music as a promotional tool, as long as it's on their own terms. Having the guy who posted the songs prosecuted did nothing to stem the tide of illegal downloads of GNR songs, while his actions helped to promote the band and their work. Furthermore, what's the real difference between streaming the songs on MySpace, and having them freely available elsewhere online? Those who are so inclined can still find a way to convert the streams into downloaded files, while the streams could just point some users to download the album via BitTorrent, where it's readily available.

The blogger who uploaded the latest Guns N' Roses album, Chinese Democracy, and who was then arrested has apparently agreed to a plea bargain in the case. Prosecutors had already dropped the charges from a felony to a misdemeanor, and the plea deal probably means he'll get off without too much punishment -- but the whole thing still seems fairly ridiculous. It's not at all clear why the FBI wasted taxpayer money chasing down a fan who simply helped promote the music. In the end, it seems like GNR basically got tax-payer funded promotion for its latest album, while causing significant stress in the life of the guy who was in the middle of all of this. What a joke.

Last month, of course, there was a big story around the FBI arresting a blogger who was accused of posting the music files from Guns N' Roses latest album. He now faces many years in jail, despite simply being a fan helping to promote GNR. As we pointed out, this was a huge mistake by GNR, as appearing anti-fan is a move that will almost always backfire.

As if to provide even more evidence of that, Bob Lefsetz does a quick email back-and-forth with Eric Garland of BigChampagne, the company that tracks file sharing activity. Garland points out that prior to the arrest, there was almost no file sharing of the album, despite the fact that the leak happened a while back. However, since the arrest, the numbers have shot way up, as the arrest has really only served to alert the public that the album is available for download on BitTorrent.

Now, the cynical among you (you know who you are) may conclude that this is all a marketing ploy by the band, knowing that it would attract a lot more attention for the album, and that's why they did it. Of course, that doesn't explain why the FBI is involved and why a fan of the band may now have to sit in jail for many years for helping to promote the band. If this really is a cynical marketing ploy, it's rather sickening that the FBI is assisting and a big fan of the band may end up in jail for it.

Last week, when we wrote about the FBI's decision to arrest a Guns N' Roses fan who leaked the band's long awaited next album, one of the common responses in the comments was that because GNR had the legal right to do this, it absolutely made sense for the band to have the FBI track down and arrest this guy. While we've pointed it out before, it's worth pointing out again that just because you have the legal right to do something, it doesn't always mean that it makes sense to actually do it.

In the case of GNR, this point is expressed quite clearly by music industry observer Bob Lefsetz, who discusses how badly this whole ordeal is reflecting on GNR:

Fans. They're the hardest thing to acquire. You can buy publicity, you can pay off distributors. There's mutual self-interest. You want to sell and they want to profit. Newspapers don't do stories on acts no one cares about, and television is only interested in stars. But fans are not doing business. There's no financial payoff for being a fan. It's an end-user application. You don't build up your fandom and sell it. You own it. At least until it fades away when the act does something heinous, like stand up to Napster.

That's haunting Metallica nearly a decade out. Metallica was right, but their fans thought they were wrong. And you always want to come out on the side of your fans. Metallica has learned its lesson. But the record labels have not.

And neither, apparently, has GNR. We've discussed in the past how difficult it has been for Metallica to regain the fans it lost as a result of standing up to Napster, and it will be interesting if something similar happens to GNR in this case. Having your biggests fans arrested tends to make people question why they are fans in the first place. It's basically the opposite of the concept of engaging your true fans. These types of actions push them away, and that's never good for business.

There's this whole "war on terror" thing going on out there, and you'd think that folks in the FBI would be pretty busy taking care of their role in that. But, apparently, some agents are busy trying to track down who leaked the latest Guns N' Roses album online. Why? Well, because our various Attorneys General continue to think that music piracy really is funding terrorism while also a threat to our economy. However, it's hard to believe that some random guy leaking an album is either going to have any impact on terrorism or on actual money made by Guns N' Roses. The album was going to get online eventually. The fact that it was leaked isn't going to change a thing about how much money the band makes. Yet, the FBI is apparently spending taxpayer money trying to track down the leaker.

Furthermore, it's pretty obvious that the actual leaker was someone involved in the production of the album (who else would have a copy?). In fact, history has shown that insiders are responsible for plenty of entertainment industry leaks. If so, it would seem that this should be an internal issue, dealt with by the band, its record label and production staff, rather than involving the FBI, who if they must be policing infringement issues could at least go after ones that matter.