Singer Plugs CD Leak WIth eBay, 350 Pounds

Culture

from the i-believe-in-a-thing-called-the-highest-bidder dept

The lead singer of British band The Darkness bought a leaked copy of the group’s forthcoming CD off of eBay to keep it from being leaked. It was a review copy that was part of a batch sent to music reviewers, and the band said they’ll be able to track down who it was via an ID number on the disc, and that “that person is going to go down”. The BPI (the British equivalent of the RIAA), inevitably, blames eBay — another example of misplacing blame on the Internet. Of course, the real issue for the BPI is that eBay lets people make transactions involving music that cut them out of the picture, and a singer buying his own CD back from a nasty thief makes for a juicy story. But hey, if it helps shut down a big market for used CDs — something record labels would love — it’s done its job. The labels are trying to assert that they should have some say over the merchandise eBay can sell — first, it’s “counterfeit and unauthorized” material, then, later, it’s any music at all, since they don’t see any money from it. In any case, we hope the band’s singer didn’t have to deal with the world’s angriest eBay seller.