RIAA Goes After NINE INCH NAILS Fans Over Deliberate Leak Campaign

Launch Radio Networks reports: The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA),which has become notorious for suing anyone from high school students to retirees for downloading music from the web, has gone after web sites such as Idolator that have posted leaked songs from the upcoming NINE INCH NAILS album, "Year Zero". The problem, however, is that the tracks were leaked intentionally. Several songs from the album were left on computer hard drives at venues on the band's current European tour, with fans finding and posting them on the web for others to download and swap. According to Billboard.com, the RIAA sent cease-and-desist emails to web sites that posted the tracks, leading one industry source to say, "These f***ing idiots are going after a campaign that the label signed off on."

While a number of songs have been intentionally released, the entire NINE INCH NAILS album has not leaked online yet. The CD arrives on April 17.

In addition to the leaked tracks, the marketing campaign for "Year Zero" has featured cryptic messages on T-shirts and a maze of linked web sites that expand upon the album's storyline of a future U.S. on the brink of apocalypse.

The same source told Billboard that NINE INCH NAILS frontman Trent Reznor views the campaign as a "new entertainment form." The source added that the campaign will continue for the next 18 months.

"Year Zero" is reportedly the first of two concept albums, the second of which Reznor hopes to finish next year.

NINE INCH NAILS finishes its European tour on April 10 in Finland and has just announced another round of shows on that continent beginning in August. A trip to Australia and Japan is planned for May. North American dates have not been announced yet.