Madonna's web site hacked over fake MP3's put on the P2P networks
Material Girl encounters MP3 loving hackers
04-20-2003 2:05:34 PM CST -- By Paul Cashmere for Undercover.com
Over the weekend the official Madonna site madonna.com was designed to look like it was hacked and the entire new 'American Life' album offered for a free download. Every song from the Madonna album was available to save as MP3 just as the album was shipping into store. So ... is this a real hack or a crafty promotional stunt? Maybe it is for real. It now looks like the work of the hacker is a retaliation against Madonna faking files of her new songs on illegal download sites. Fans who came across the Madonna files in places like Kazaa found in many cases they didn't get the song they thought they were downloading. Instead, they got an audio message from Madonna stating repeatedly "what the **** do you think you're doing".
The Madonna.com hacker has left the message "this is what the **** I think I'm doing" and links to downloads of every song off the album in MP3 format. All 11 tracks from 'American Life' were there to grab as of early Sunday just after midnight. However, by morning the site was off the air. If it was a publicity stunt orchestrated from inside then it was clever. If not, someone angry with the original Madonna download strategy went to a lot of trouble. Then again, Madonna is certainly suffering a backlash from her highly emotional, newly discarded anti-Bush video. The attack could be from an irate fan upset by her swaying of opinion and backing down with the release of the video. The lady is a marketing genius. We may never know what really happened. Whatever the case, it got people talking about the album and that can't be a bad thing.
Click here to view the defaced web site mirrored at Zone-H.org
Hard to say whether it was just about Fake Madonna MP3's being floated on the p2p networks, or Madonna's anti-Bush statements or whether the RIAA.org web site was unavailable for a hacking... tee hee..
