Madonna To Pirates: 'What the **** Do You Think You're Doing?'

[The Finman]

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<h2><font color=#003399>Madonna To Pirates: 'What the **** Do You Think You're Doing?' </font></h2>
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.


Full Article <font color="red"><u>Here</u></font>

Follow up...

<h2><font color=#003399>Madonna's Site Hacked as File-Sharers Fight Dirty</font></h2>
Now hackers have apparently exacted their revenge, hacking the site and adding a page which reads: "This is what the f*ck I think I'm doing."


The page also contained links to genuine bootlegged versions of Madonna album tracks.


The site is back now, after being down for most of Monday and part of Tuesday.


Madonna's war with hackers isn't unique, but it has been one of the consistent threads of the battles over online music during the past few years. Several other artists and groups that have complained about file swapping and have seen similar attacks.


The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has been the target of repeated hack attacks during the past year, sending the site offline several times. Metallica, the hard-rock band that proved to be one of Napster's chief antagonists, had its site hacked at the peak of that controversy.


Madonna's release of fake files into file-swapping networks is an increasingly common way of combating Net piracy, even if her own twist on the tactic has earned her more attention. Several technology start-ups have built businesses around duping downloaders this way. In Napster's heyday, these false files were dubbed "Cuckoo Eggs" by one group of independent piracy fighters.


Madonna's publicist did not immediately return calls for comment, but told Reuters that the hack was genuine.


Full Article <font color="red"><u>Here</u></font>