The Web Sheriff: Mr.Molko's Attack Dog

............well not really.It seems Placebo's new record label PIAS has enlisted the

cyber police.In the form of pesky UK based copyright protection firm Web Sheriff. On hearing the news that Placebo were releasing another track(Ashtray Heart) from their forthcoming album Battle For The Sun I was pretty excited to hear it as I'm a huge fan of their's.The only problem is that it's only available to download in Japan!
So as I scowered the interweb looking for a Rip I kept coming across this notice posted on every blog and forum that the song was available on:

WEB SHERIFF
Protecting Your Rights on the Internet
Tel 44-(0)208-323 8013
Fax 44-(0)208 323 8080
websheriff@websheriff.com
www.websheriff.com

Hi Insert Name Here,

On behalf of PIAS, Astralwerks and Placebo, many thanks for plugging "Battle For The Sun " (album street date 8th June) ... .. thanks, also, on behalf of the labels and artist for not posting any pirate links to unreleased (studio) material and, if you / your readers want good quality, non-pirated, preview tracks, the title track is available for fans and bloggers to link to / post / host etc until the 13th April at www.placeboworld.co.uk... .. for further details of the new album, on-line promotions, videos and 2009 shows, check-out the band’s site plus www.myspace.com/placebo and www.youtube.com/officialplacebo

So here it is

I realise that the Web Sheriff will probably contact me and ask me to take it down soon, but there's no harm in trying,besides it's a fucking aweful recording - I'm pretty sure it was recorded from a phone then uploaded to Youtube. You're better off waiting for the worldwide release or till a HQ version is uploaded somewhere.

For web sheriff,

Hi, I know you are only doing what you're being paid to do, but you can't realistically take down every uploaded version of the song (you are doing a pretty good job though!!). If you have any contact with the band/label could you please ask them why in this age of global media convergence did they choose such a limited distribution path for a new track? Over the past 10 years I've spent thousands on Placebo and I have ordered my Battle For The Sun boxset(70 FUCKING POUNDS) off the website.......so you can be sure I'll be downloading every copyright infringed, pirated track that becomes available and they will.

So Mr.Sheriff, let the Battle(for the sun) commence.