Madonna has fought back against bootleggers and file-traders by distributing her own personalised message to the masses via websites and P2P networks.

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Fans seeking tracks from the 'American Life' album - unreleased at time of writing - have reported downloading files which have been blank, except for Madonna asking "What the fuck do you think you're doing!"

While tight security surrounds the release of 'American Life', Madonna has taken advantage of fans' desire to download officially unreleased tracks to generate publicity for her new album. Instead of making a statement via her publicist or website, Madonna has cheekily delivered a message straight to those who sought to download her new songs.

At the very least, this is a fresh approach to the problem of music piracy and file-trading. Artists have reacted to unauthorized distribution of music in different ways, some of which have have been public relations disasters.

Radiohead, who found their 'Hail To The Thief' album leaked online, have used their own website to make a public statement about the hitherto unreleased tracks. Radiohead's record label Parlophone are investigating the source of the leak.

Eminem's 'The Eminem Show' album was released earlier than planned because it had been leaked onto Kazaa, while other artists are using DVD components and access to exclusive web content as an incentive for fans to purchase albums.

Those of you with long memories will remember the stance taken by Metallica and Dr. Dre in opposing Napster. Metallica had users banned from the file-sharing community, while Dre gave Napster a list of over 200,000 users who allegedly violated his copyrights. The musicians quickly found a rising backlash against them.  

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