Band Leaks Own Album, Blames Pirates

A Cow writes "When the hard rock band Buckcherry found out their latest single had leaked on BitTorrent, they didn't try to cover it up or take the file down. No, instead, they issued a press release. After a bit of research, TorrentFreak found out the track wasn't leaked by pirates, but by Josh Klemme, the manager of the band. In an attempt to cover their tracks, the press release was pulled, but it's still available through Reuters and Google's cache."

That's not piracy, that's *Marketing*

Sounds like a marketting strategy to me!

Re:That's not piracy, that's *Marketing*

True that. I've never heard of BuckCherry, but I'll be damned if we aren't talking about them on Slashdot. That's a manager earning his fifteen percent.

Re:That's not piracy, that's *Marketing*

You mean mARRRketing.

Re:That's not piracy, that's *Marketing*

Surely the band's manager is their agent, legally speaking?

If that's the case, then if the band are the copyright holders of their own work (a fairly safe assumption) and their agent is making it available in the public domain, I'd have thought it legal to download.

No black mark there. I'll be looking out for it on BitTorrent, as they've granted me the right to peruse the download link, I presume.

Re:That's not piracy, that's *Marketing*

agent is making it available in the public domain, I'd have thought it legal to download.

That word “public domain” doesn't mean what you think it means. Public domain refers to stuff that is not under copyright. Just because the Linux kernel is available for free from kernel.org (and countless other places), doesn't mean it is in the “public domain.” It doesn't even necessarily mean that you have the right to download it, either.

Re:That's not piracy, that's *Marketing*

I think by releasing it via bittorrent gives you a implied licence to both download it and distribute it to others.

From a Judge's perspective it can only mean that since they were releasing it to everyone via a medium which requires re-distribution.

Re:That's not piracy, that's *Marketing*

BuckCherry likely own the rights to the words and music (assuming they wrote same), but if their recording contract is like 99% of them, the record label has the rights to the recordings.

Putting it in general terms... if you're a band with a typical contract, you can perform your songs live, print the lyrics, re-record them (once your exclusive recording deal is up), but you CANNOT distribute the recordings without the record label's permission.

"No black mark there. I'll be looking out for it on BitTorrent, as they've granted me the right to peruse the download link, I presume."

If you want to pirate it, just pirate it. Your rationalization, while unintentionally fallacious, is fallacious all the same.

Viral Marketing for Dummies

Example found in the chapter: What NOT to do.

Stands to reason

It stands to reason that such a talentless and disposable band would stoop to such dishonesty. Show the band how you support such underhanded tactics by making sure that you never buy any of their albums (not that you would anyhow).

Re:Stands to reason

It stands to reason that such a talentless and disposable band would stoop to such dishonesty. Show the band how you support such underhanded tactics by making sure that you never buy any of their albums (not that you would anyhow).

Don't download it either, sucks when people don't even want your stuff for free!

Re:Stands to reason

Show the band how you support such underhanded tactics by making sure that you never buy any of their albums.

Huh? You can buy music? :P

Re:Stands to reason

Exactly. All mods should know about all unknown songs by all unknown bands!

Let's get this out of the way...

I didn't RTFA, but I for one welcome our new, naked Natalie Portman and grits overlords, to which CmdrTaco replied, "you must be new here." He's a Twitter sock-puppet, but so am I, you insensitive clod! In Soviet Russia, the only way to be sure is for orbit to nuke you with a beowulf cluster (yes, it runs Linux!). ??? Profit!

I am trying to condense Slashdot down to a fine extract. Anyone else want to see if they can perfect it?

Re:Let's get this out of the way...

You forgot that email is for old South Koreans.

This makes a lot of sense

Buckcherry has released an official statement regarding the song's unscheduled arrival, declaring, "Honestly, we hate it when this s*** happens, because we want our FANS to have any new songs first."

So basically, either none of their fans use the internet, their definition of "first" is different than mine, or they inhabit some sort of crazy universe with non-linear time.

I think they were "Too Drunk...." when they wrote this press release.

I think

They are basically using a silly sort of reverse logic. They want to leak the song, because they know it'll generate more interest. However they are worried if they do, that people will choose to download it and then not buy it. So they then come up with the idea that "Hey, we'll pretend like we didn't leak it and hate on those that did. That'll shame the fans in to buying it!" After that the discussion was probably something along the lines of "Fuck yeah I am a philosophy logic ninja MASTER! Pass the bong man."

Re:This makes a lot of sense

You insensitive clod! I live in linear-non is time where universe a!

Oh, the irony...

The irony is that by actually having been found out like this, the publicity and attention they got increased dramatically. Would it have been posted on slashdot if they hadn't been the ones uploading in the first place?

1. Leak single to torrent site
2. Complain about it in press release
3. Get a little attention
4. Make sure that people find out that you actually did #1.
5. Get lots of attention
6. ???
7. Profit!

Up Until...

...I heard about this, Buck Cherry were one of my favorite bands. I would kill to have Josh Todd's voice. Alas, they are one more thing for me to boycott. Fuck.

Re:Up Until...

Don't you usually like or dislike a music band for their .. I don't know .. music?

Re:Up Until...

Yes and no.

Yes, I usually like bands for their music. I also usually like game studios for their games.

When I feel tricked and cheated by them, whether or not I like their product becomes secondary. I don't want to do business with a company or people who try to cheat me.

Wikipedia edits

From the article: "It turns out that the uploader, a New York resident, had only uploaded one torrent, the BuckCherry track. When we entered the IP-address into the Wiki-scanner, we found out that the person in question had edited the BuckCherry wikipedia entry, and added the name of the band manager to another page."

Well, a certain person, who has coincidentally both edited the BuckCherry page, and added a name to a radio station page, has also added a couple of questionable contributions [wikipedia.org].

"Hard rock"?

BuckCherry is flaccid rock, at most.

Following the script of "The Heavenly Kings"

This band seems to be following the script of the semi-movie-semi-mockumentary Hong Kong film "The Heavenly Kings," in which the band decides to upload their main song to P2P networks, then complain of the leak in a press release as a method of getting coverage, hype, and attention.

Never was quite clear just how much of the film is real, and how much is fictional (the actors in the movie did in fact start a cheezy boy band, as depicted in the film, and seemed to, on one hand, draw inspiration for the film from their experiences, at the very least).

Anyhoo, the second I read the blrb, I instantly realized these guys have probably watched the film in question.

http://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews_2/heavenly_kings.htm [lovehkfilm.com]

Re:Who does the RIAA represent?

Is the manager technically represented by the RIAA or is he simply an employee of the band represented by it? If he doesn't fit into the RIAA hierarchy officially, they would be best served to go after him. After all, haven't we decided it's best to go after the drug producers and major dealers instead of the runners and users?