Hackers ‘Steal’ New Leona Lewis, Timberlake Track
Written by enigmax on August 19, 2009A police investigation is underway after an unreleased track, believed to be from Leona Lewis’s new album, leaked onto the Internet. Hackers allegedly managed to gain access to computers at Simon Cowell’s Syco – part of Sony BMG – and get their hands on the track, which sees Lewis team up with Justin Timberlake. IFPI are helping with the investigation.
During the last couple of days there have been rumors that an unreleased track from Leona Lewis’s new album had leaked onto the Internet. The track, “Don’t Let Me Down” is from the singer’s anticipated second album and sees her team up with Justin Timberlake and producer Timbaland.
Now, according to a report, the leak has been confirmed by Simon Cowell’s Syco, part of Sony BMG.
The report in Britain’s The Sun tabloid, says that ‘hackers’ targeted computers at Syco and lifted the track and later put it on the Internet, but the author seems a little confused over how these things work.
Sure, the assertion that there can be “huge kudos” to be gained by the ‘hackers’ in leaking a track like this is absolutely correct, but the article goes on to say that there is a huge financial motive too.
“Dodgy file-sharing websites pay hackers top dollar for stolen tracks as they try to attract more downloaders to the site so they can rake in more money from advertisers,” is the claim from the article.
But everyone familiar with these situations understand, as soon as a track is leaked onto the Internet word gets round very quickly. Soon everyone has a copy and the track is available from dozens of other sites, probably within minutes. It’s very difficult to imagine that paying a hacker “top dollar” would be a worthwhile investment for any site – their offering would be pirated in seconds.
A Syco spokesman confirmed that the label is working with IFPI, BPI and the police to track down the leakers. “We will certainly look to bring charges against those who are responsible. We cannot give any more details at this stage for operational reasons,” he said.
At this point it seems that Syco are doing a reasonable job of containing the leak of the mp3 itself – scanning various sites which have listed the track as available reveals that most have been subject of takedown notices from Sony. At this point it appears that the track didn’t leak via the Scene, as searches on the usual release databases reveal no sign of the song.
Despite the evil hackers and investigations by anti-piracy police and the real police, coupled with rantings by Cowell, anyone can listen to the leaked song on YouTube. Go figure.
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89 Responses
Who wants this shite anyway ?
This so smells like a PR stunt …
couldn’t have picked a worse song to leak
If it is a PR stunt; it seems to be working quite well wouldn’t you say?
Also, the song is shit, Leona Lewis is a 3rd rate artist (at best) and its worrying that someone went to the effort of ‘hacking’ into these computers to ’steal’ (read ‘copy’) this song… Hopefully Leona doesn’t get given false hope that people want to buy her album.
When are these companies going to learn that you shouldn’t be storing unreleased material on web-connected machines.
This stuff is elementary.
What a waste of time for the hackers, it would be way easier just to rip the audio from the youtube video and upload that.
In fact, i imagine that was done long before they were “hacked”
Shit song.
Hackers my arse. This has “inside job” written all over it if it isn’t a PR stunt.
Looks like a PR stunt to me
Waste of recources, looks like advertising to me.
…This is like stealing peoples toilets… It’s just crap.
Man do I not envy the “hacker” who got this when (s)he “hacked” them… Talk about disappointment…
Why does torrentfreak.com even promote this crap?
@11
I don’t know, but it’s p2p news, so…
It’s definitely a PR stunt though as others have noted.
It’s terrible how these people try to use bullshit propaganda techniques though about the profit thing.
These people know exactly that leaks aren’t done for profit, yet they need to spread as much misinformation as possible to people because they’re scared shitless.
This just highlights their tactics to more people.
Just so that everyone knows who is not in the UK… The Sun tabloid is a newspaper that only complete morons read.
It is a newspaper for people who want to have the news sensationalised and dumbed down.
All in all not a very reliable source.
i think the plan was to give this one away, it’s SHIT!!!!, sorry leona i like your voice but this song is CRAP come on please.
Leona Lewis is a idiot at best too stupid to understand her own feeling anyone who seen any interview of her will understand.
She’s a talentless arsehole who has no creativity who pimps off other peoples work whilst trying to sell her body mind you not that much diffrent from any other “pop” star really.
This is so much a PR / propaganda job. This will either quietly go away or they will have some convenient person play the scapegoat to prove the hackers and pirates are the scourge of the internet. To be honest I didn’t even know who the lady was until this came out. This is just sad.
YA “managed to gain access”
more like
MORON GAVE IT OUT TO SOMEONE and they leaked it, as was wished NOW they are blaming it on being hacked YA FRAKING right
Cant get a buzz on a sh!t album and an even sh!ttier song…. so lets say it leaked and as a bonus lets blame the “dirty pirates” – 2 birds with one stone.
Wouldnt be surprised if this was the IFPI’s idea, that organization is filled to the brim with scumbags.
What a load of crap that song is. It’s just as bad that it leaked as it is that it was made in the first place..
Oh aye, ‘hackers’ eh? Hmm, what’s that smell? Oh that’s right, it’s bullshit! :D
Obvious PR stunt is obvious.
O_o definitely a PR stunt mixed with some more falsehoods to mislead those who may not understand bittorrent technology. (not saying i understand it 100% either but i understand it enough to know that anyone who is willing to pay money for something that will eventually end up everywhere and for free is out of their freaking mind) Of course this is written in a tabloid and as far as i know most sane people take what is written in tabloids with a grain of salt. Please correct me if i’m wrong on this.
Leona has a halloween mask on and timberfag nuff said. This farticle is poo
Oh no. It is the end of the world. Someone leaked a song! Now Mr.Timberlake and Leona won’t be able to eat dinner tonight.
@23 rofl
This is most likely fake propaganda shit. How I know? No hacker would fucking bother to leak this shit
It was leeaked by the music industry.. @22 Take the dildo out of your butt please..
can tell timbaland produced this, sounds like apologize, but goodness is this girl crap, from the xfactor i thought she was going to be outstanding but she truly is crap, as timbaland start creating better beats man, they all sound the same, timberlake just go away mate, you useless, wheres the real music gone goodness me, rock music is taking over,
i dare to bet that it was leaked intentionally… either to promote it like many do these days or to make P2P look bad again, cause the filesharers are ALL to blame ofcourse…
[quote]#5 (Anon):
What a waste of time for the hackers, it would be way easier just to rip the audio from the youtube video and upload that.
In fact, i imagine that was done long before they were “hacked”[/quote]
WOW! Your the BIGGEST idiot on the planet?
Don’t you think that someone downloaded the song AFTER the ‘hackers’ leaked it?
The video was uploaded “August 18, 2009″ don’t you think the leak was before?
Dude, PLEASE USE YOU BRAIN (if you have one)!
The Sun is not worth the paper it’s printed on, and that song ain’t worth the MBs.
PR stunt fo’ sure.
I think the people singing in the “Ruby and the Rockits” sing better but that is just me LoL
yeah but,,,,,,,,,,, i’d still tap her O_o
Meh, I’d do her, maybe once.
Goebbels would be proud, as always.
It’s the INDUSTRY that pays top dollar for journalist slander of p2p reality. The bottom line is trying to get public opinion to boo sharing so that they can get more nazi laws out with approval.
Sad, sad world.
Waste of time. The hackers went into the producers email account and got the track. Dumb Sony think they entered their servers. Hackers aint stupid and know what they are doing. One clue: They are mostly in Germany!!
This song is such a letdown. So much for “don’t Let me Down”. This was SO an inside job, as I said before, you can’t just walk into a recording studio and take a song from someone’s computer.
PR stunt for real…
If it was a problem this track surely wouldn’t be on youtube still, it’s not like Yt has ever said no to the big labels.
Simon Cowell knows to well any publicity is good publicity.
I can see why this song needs the PR aswell, it’s a poor track for either of the duo.
PR stunt for real…
If it was a problem this track surely wouldn’t be on youtube still, it’s not like Yt has ever said no to the big labels.
Simon Cowell knows to well any publicity is good publicity.
I can see why this song needs the PR aswell, it’s a poor track for either of the duo.
p.s. the sun will sex up any story, they’ve been watching to many movies where hackers are secretly rich as hell and break into computers in less than 60 seconds
all of you are idoits,this song is great and so is leona.feel sorry for her and hate those fucking hacker who leaked the song its so pathetic.leona all the way
love you leona,cant wait for the album will be the first one to buy it :) xx
What a bunch of morons.. nobody is paying hackers TOP DOLLAR OMG FOR ONE SINGLE..
You idiots WISH that your absolute garbage music was worth the devotion of a real hacker.. you probly got jacked by a 15 year old with a laptop cause you got on some unsecured shit…
Welcome to the internet dumbshits, you want to know why they got your song? They do it for the lulz.
One track leaked and I’d agree on the PR front and this being all hype but this is the fifth track leaked in the last few weeks from her forthcoming album.
Also there’s a load of other tracks from other artists on the same record label that have been turning up on a German hackers website. Whether it’s really hacking or simply someone in the company with a bit of a grudge feeding that site who knows.
Good God you lot are a bunch of idiots!!
go leoan.cant wait for her perfume,any one know wen its out at the shops????
her songs rock cant wait for the album whose with me???
Dietmar you are right! Record labels don’t have a clue. Blame the producers for emailing songs around. Thats how the hackers get away with it. If you are a producer becareful of sending tracks through emails. Sooner or later it might end up on the german hackers website!
@39
N.O.
What I want to know is who the who that uses bittorrent wants this shit. Also topsites don’t have ads this whole story makes no sense.
Urgh, I don’t want to see that.
I don’t understand why they would choose this song; you’re right.
Video no longer available due to copyright claim by IFPI. LOL
“IFPI are helping with the investigation.”
Here we go again private corps “helping”/planting/insert devious act here.
Or as most of you people here would say: “WTF a private corporation doing police stuff”.
(Excuse my spelling I don’t usually spell as most; that would be wrong.)
SNF – Stupidity Never Fails
Peopler still any type of junks these days.
Leona Lewis, Timberlake (Crapck) heu I mean Track?
Geee!
This track is no going to stay very long on p2p because as soon as people realize this is garbage they will delete it from their share folder.
Nothing to worry about.
At least people should leak something valuable.
No kudos to any ‘hacker’ who would copy plastic music – PR stunt.
lol they keep deleting it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7vLqsLzJYI
but it is crap i must say
only leona fans on her and stop slagging her of ,if u dont like her then why listen to her songs.allof u are idoits
ive never heard of her but can tell the songs crap by who shes in bed with…timberlake,timbaland,cowell…all four are talentless hacks.
did they find her on american idol?
@loveleona
i wont listen to her or anything like this but i will talk shit about all four of them as all four deserve to get the crap beaten out of them
Anyone who reads the Sun is an small minded idiot. No exceptions
It’s the UK equivalent of Fox TV.
shitty artist, shitty song, bullshit PR stunt.
http://www.rmx4u.com
Hacker central. Leak orginated from there.
A leaked song from the “amy grant” of our generation . . . who cares.
@57: This man is right. The paper is written by technophobes who run a mile when they see something other than Twitter or Facebook. They were also reporting that the TPB crew were in jail and were writing about how violent video games are the spawn of Satan a few years ago. The only use that I have ever found for this paper is for wiping my arse with when I ran out of toilet roll.
@13
thx for informing me about that newspaper. I lol’d when I read your comment about them.
@loveleona are you on drugs? we’ve heard that you love her songs.
I can proudly say. ” Please don’t waste your bandwidth!”
no im not on drugs,so if u love her songs does it mean your on drugs???ooo i didnt know that im suprised,
show love for the girl shes done nothing wrong shes the best british singer by far,we all should be proud of her she goes around the world and she represents us.so people stop being haters and be lovers as my name states on there,
loves u all x
@65 Aug 20, 2009 at 00:49 by loveleona:
By “us” you mean you because she doesn’t represent me, my country, my religion or any preference that I have, furthermore I don’t like how she sings.
About the hate well I have nothing against her and agree that she maybe don’t deserve the heat, but that is my who doesn’t know who the f*** is she, never heard of her and don’t care.
Good job Hackers but it’s a shitty song anyway
One of the two artist leaked it to test the waters. if it’s a hit in the bittorrent world it’s sure to be a hit in the stores that is if people have the extra income.
Ok, I’m hating to admit this. That damn song is actually growing on me a bit. LOL Maybe I need my head examined. I’ve certainly heard much worse.
No reason to waste time and not to mention brain power on something stupid.
LOL, OMG dude that is simply amazing. Think it may have been an “inside” job??
RT
http://www.web-tools.us.tc
Oh puhlease! As a hacker I find it insulting that someone would use the term loosely. And to imply that a genuine hacker did this is derogatory and downright immoral! We hackers may lack social skills but that also doesn’t mean we have bad taste in music! and we especially draw the lines when it comes to a singer managed and promoted by Simon Cowle.
TorrentFreak needs to get in contact with the record label and ask them for their police contacts — presumably the (UK) Trading Standards that is handling this case, as their inspectors frequently work hand-in-hand with IFPI and BPI combatting piracy.
Offer them TorrentFreak’s services, and don’t be shy taking credit for solving a similar piracy case last year. The police will certainly be glad to have someone of TorrentFreak’s experience and expertise assisting them.
Don’t let The record labels brush you off — this is a serious criminal matter, and the sooner TF makes contact with the police, the better.
This time lets send the evil music leaker to jail!
@loveleona are you on drugs?
Yes. At the door of a Leona concert they distribute free crack to make people like the crapy show anyway.
Distributing crake is the new marketing campain invented by the entertainment parasites.
QUICK! its on the pirate bay get it while you can!
nah haha it will always stay on the pirate bay
until the new owners………….
Definitly a PR stunt……Syck Simon at his best
Nearly all those early leaks these days are PR stunts.
Bad thing is that, while promoting absolutely awful music this way (they try to make people think its good because “hey, someone pirated it, so it must be good”) they are puttiing false blame on P2P.
2 birds 1 stone?
whoop wooop love this song its a killer,cant stop listening to it.i know all the words now how good is that my people lol…
ps
please dont hate me im only a leona fan
love you all xx
song is amazing you gotta love it.
love you all
seems like a pr stunt that simon cowell would do – intent on creating ‘his’ modern version of whitney and mariah with leona an alexandra
leak of mp3?
who records tracks in mp3 for processing in studio? are you kidding me
Take that biaaaaaaaaatch
Top dollar… Right. Welcome to neverland MAFIAA and merry friends.
Go fight the people that are actually making money out of your work selling it on the streets.
I’m sorry, but these hackers have just gone too far this time. Don’t they realise that innocent children might have suffered as a result of their actions had they managed to get a hold of this material. Shame on them ;-)
>>83
these who are selling bootleg cd’s on the street are cursing Internet pirated no less than IFPI or RIAA
these poor people are almost strawing today.
————
Obvous atemtp to exploit Straisen efect.
Afrer take down notice site owners should give explanation that :
song was removed because it was total crap. not because IFPI requested that.
This all smells of a crappy PR stunt just to create excitement and buzz for the new album. They are trying to prevent Leona Lewis from being a one hit washed up wonder.
Even if it were true, skilled hackers would be filtering their activities through bot zombie computers from any source around with the world in countries beyond the reach of the RIAA and their ilk.
Good luck finding them. Most hackers aren’t stupid enough to do it from their parents ISP accounts using their own computers revealing IP address trails directly to them.
Simon Cowell (hot daddy wonder) with his billions can’t stop the internet. Once the songs out there, it’s out there.
But perhaps it’ll get remixed by some Berklee Music students and turn it in to something that is actually nice to listen to. We all know stuff directly from record companies completely suck.
Oh gawd…i just listened to it on Youtube (had to sift through all the fakes). It’s terrible. The hackers should not have released it.
My little sister said
baba
I agree
I think I have to agree with quasimodo… it reeks of shite and “publicity”…
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