View Full Version : Madonna To Pirates: 'What The F--- Do You Think You're Doing?'


Iluvthe80s
4-16-03, 06:13 PM
Singer lashes out at file traders on P2P networks.

by Gil Kaufman


File traders, Madonna has a question for you: "What the f--- do you think you're doing?"

That's the message you're likely to get if you try to download songs from the singer's upcoming American Life, due April 22, on
peer-to-peer networks such as Limewire or KaZaA.

The spoofed file — a planted fake meant to thwart illegal downloading — recently began flooding P2P networks. Madonna's spokesperson could not be reached for comment. Other spoofed files containing Madonna's salty tirade appeared on KaZaA in versions of the new songs "Nobody Knows Me" and "X-Static Process."

If you don't get the foul-mouthed message from Madonna, you will more than likely find a phony file that's been circulating for several weeks, a four-minute loop of the chorus from the album's title track and first single.

As with many new releases, the Madonna album has been kept under tight wraps to avoid piracy, with promotional copies being held back from journalists until just before the official release.

Similar security measures preceded the release of Linkin Park's Meteora, with numerous spoofed tracks from that album blanketing P2P networks, many consisting of looped interview quotes from the band's members or repeated sections of songs. Both Linkin Park and Madonna are on Warner Bros. Records.

Though they are reluctant to divulge their client list, a number of companies have been working with labels to create spoofed files in an effort to make illegal downloading frustrating and to steer consumers toward such legal download sites as Pressplay, MusicNet and Rhapsody.

This report is provided by MTV News

djdaffy1227
4-17-03, 09:47 AM
That's actually pretty funny. I think I will try to download this message. It will be a collector's item :)

Slayergrrl
4-17-03, 09:58 AM
Kinda makes me want to buy the album just so i can upload it to Kazaa and Winmx. hahahaha

Eighties_UK
4-21-03, 11:17 AM
Hilarious....this is the record companies answer to mp3 sharing lol
It takes 2 seconds to rename a file to "madonna - Nobody Knows Me (the real version) which is all that will happen. Also people on high speed conections wont worry too much if they have to download 3 or 4 versions to get the real one.

DC Rebel
4-21-03, 12:40 PM
I would have to agree with you DJ about downloading the message.

djdaffy1227
4-21-03, 03:50 PM
I just downloaded it from WinMX! It is really there :) I love it!!

wavemaster
4-21-03, 10:02 PM
In Germany, the spokesmen and -women of the record labels made a wee mistake by issuing a press information which is warning the users of P2P networks of files with filenames like "Artist - Title(Xxxxmp3.com)" and similar extensions of the filename in circulation, since these files are supposed to be "fakes" containing only loops of the original track in the same duration or being a completely different track.

The mistake...the majority of the files who are labeled like that are containing "the real stuff" (regular P2P-users know which sigs and abbreviations are "cool" and which are "fake"), and if you know that faked files are in circulation, you simply wait one or two weeks more after the album had been released since those networks seems to have a "self-purgatory-effect" which means that the faked files disappear after a certain time.

I'm still waiting for a press information which is saying "we, the record labels, did the biggest mistake by demanding an indecent amount of money from the consumers if they want to buy our products"...as regular releases are now sold for an average 17 - 19$ (in Germany).

Jasper
4-22-03, 03:01 PM
Yes, and Madonna's website got hacked right after word of this came out. Check out what it looked like!
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/madonnasplash1.html

Opheliarose
4-22-03, 06:33 PM
Man that's funny!! I bet she'll think twice about doing that again!! :)