This email snip is from an entertainment industry crony of Doc Searls. As could have been predicted ahead of time, U2's new soon-to-be mega-blockbuster album has been leaked on the Internet before its release date. The humor, irony, and bungling comes from how this bad situation is being handled.. Badly.

] Well, over the weekend it was starting to show up on
] BitTorrent sites. The whole CD was there in fine audio
] form. By Tuesday I would guess almost everybody in radio
] had it. BUT nobody was playing it. (You can now monitor
] this in real time for stations country wide with search
] and all that.) Why? Well to do so would piss off the
] record company and the band.
]
] There is a tour planned in 2005 and of course lots of
] stations want to be part of the promotion for that. And
] now, with so few record labels it's not a good idea to
] piss anyone off. But radio was really wanting to play the
] CD. So the record company promised to get copies out to
] the stations Thursday. I don't know if they actually sent
] a CD or did it via computer as they do with commercials.
]
] So today stations around the country started to play it.
] But it's still not in the stores or on iTunes. Why? Get
] this...word is the retail stores will be pissed if the
] band puts it up on iTunes before the CD is on the shelves
] in the stores! Wal Mart trumps U2.
]
] So the big plan to trump illegal downloads completely
] backfires today as jocks all around the country play new
] the new U2 CD and say "it's not available yet."
] Translation: "you can get an illegal copy on the Net," to
] the clickty click folks. So much for that strategy.

You can't yet get U2's album in any legitimate way, but you can get a special edition U2 branded iPod to hold all your favorite Nevativland tunes! http://www.apple.com/ipod/u2/

Best known for their lawsuits, the RIAA is also responsible for giving out those platinum and gold albums to celebrate high record sales.. (No, I didn't get that backwards, its the new millennium, baby. thump thump thump thump, its oh four, not four four, baby.) They may need to make a new prize for a botched release. I suggest "The Brown Download".

Best known for their lawsuits, the RIAA is also responsible for giving out those platinum and gold albums to celebrate high record sales..

[ In fact, that's *all* they're chartered to do. They've evolved into the forward face of the industry, but they need to get their wings clipped a bit, in my opinion. -k]