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STRATOVARIUS Guitarist: If You Download My Music, I Will Sue

January 3, 2003

STRATOVARIUS guitarist/mastermind Timo Tolkki, a notorious opponent of illegal music downloading in any form, has threatened to take legal action against any person, or persons, involved in distributing the group's forthcoming CD, "Elements Part I", ahead of its Jan. 27 release date.

The following is Tolkki's posting on the subject as taken from the official STRATOVARIUS forum:

"I just got back from the promo tour [for the new CD] and received the news that [the new album is] on the net already.

"I have taken the necessary steps to find out the persons, who have put it there. I have contacted our lawyer and the Internet department of the Helsinki police. I already have in my possession some IP numbers and there's more to come. We have obtained a list of journalists who have received the promo copy. We will find those people who did this and they will face a court case, for sure. They are transmitting internationally copyrighted material without permission. The same goes to anybody who downloads this stuff from Internet. It is morally wrong and it is also illegal because of the copyright. Don't download unless you don't wanna get into trouble. We have means to find out these things. If you think that you have the right to download copyrighted STRATOVARIUS material, you are wrong. In that case, I don't want you as a fan. There will be sound clips available on our OFFICIAL web site in time, just like there are clips for those who want to check out STRATO. I am not gonna write these things again. To close this, you might want to be very careful what you download. There are already several false versions of 'Elements' in the net and some of them contain viruses too."

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