Album leaks are an unfortunate trend in music right now, perhaps the reason why so many performers are opting to release their albums by surprise for download rather than issue an official release date. Some performers you just can't screw with however: The outrage from the Madonna camp led the FBI and other international bodies to investigate the leak of demos from her forthcoming album Rebel Heart and led to the arrest of a former contestant on an Israeli television vocal competition (from The Hollywood Reporter).
The FBI responded to a complain from the office of Madonna's manager Guy Oseary after the demos of her album were released on the internet during December. The agency used her computers to judge that the hack had come from Israel, and that nation's Lahav 433 took the case from there and booked a 39 year-old resident of Tel Aviv, whose name has not been revealed due to a gag order.
Obviously the man's aforementioned time on reality television wasn't enough to justify a career, as reports from the FBI and Lahav 433 indicate that he had hacked the computers of other international music stars and stolen music as well, selling what he stole for a fee.
The pop star's camp reacted to the December 20 leak by rushing six of the album's tracks to iTunes ahead of schedule. Rebel Heart is currently scheduled to be released on March 9, you know, unless she decides to surprisingly release the whole thing online during February.
Kind of makes you think...we sure give Axl Rose and Guns N' Roses crap about how long it took for Chinese Democracy to come out...but perhaps we should give him some kudos for never having any of it get out ahead of time.
