Stones' new album already on the net

Found on SMH on Sunday, 04 September 2005
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The Rolling Stones' first studio album in eight years has been illegally posted on the internet for download, a British newspaper claims.

A Bigger Bang is due for release today but illegal downloading from several websites could cost the legendary British group a fortune in lost sales, the paper said.

A spokeswoman for the Stones' record company EMI told The Times of London: "The first low-quality files of new Rolling Stones music were found illegally posted on Monday, the same day we began making the new album available for consumers to listen to via radio and streaming."

"It is actually a major achievement to keep an album secure until this close to the commercial release date."

The entire 16-track album is available to listen to on the Stones' website.

I'm not sure if they knew this, but you don't keep an album secure by posting it on your website. If you are dumb enough to do this, you shouldn't complain when someone records the tracks. Furthermore, you shouldn't complain about possible losses; after all, you've released it yourself. That's not even piracy.