The White Stripes aren't the first ones to do that, but yeah. I think the Barenaked Ladies did something similar to this Madonna thing a while back, too.

Posting on The Smoking Gun today about Madonna's site being hacked, with someone posting all the songs from the new CD:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/madonnasplash1.html

The White Stripes, if they were behind the mp3's released on file sharing networks of thier new album, did something comepletely different! There were three tracks if I remember correctly, and they were the just first minute or so of the song, looped for the typical length of a song. So you got to hear what the track sounded like, but didn't get the song.

Seeing that they didn't release the new album on Emusic, and I was just trying to figure out if I wanted to buy it or not (as I get most of my music off of emusic now, or at used CD shops, due to it being so much cheaper than a full-price CD), this worked out well, for after hearing these 'promo' tracks (which I just assumed had been downloaded from a mag like Rolling Stone or something, and then looped and posted as full songs by someone trying to look cool- not from the White Stripes directly) I bought the CD, full-price, the next day.

I dunno, seems like this stunt is pretty much in keeping with Madonna's brand image. And brands, while related to trademarks, are larger and more abstract concepts. I'm not clear on how her actions affect whatever legal trademark status she might claim. Do they?

I think "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" is an excellent question for anyone actually seeking out Madonna's music.

I just sent a piece of "fan mail" to her: fanmail@madonnafanclub.com
if anyone cares to do the same. i asked her what the fuck she thought SHE was doing? right now starts a NEW techno geek populist movement which will bring Madonna down. now THAT's 'American Life'.

How about the fact she swore in it? Any parents out there want to make a complaint about her swearing to their child minors? Think of the children!!

I hope the remix becomes more popular than the original tracks. If they started playing it in clubs, it would be a great, "aye, and f**k you as well Madonna..."

I don't think there's anything Madonna could do to dilute her trademark that she hasn't already done by releasing her last two albums =) (Both of which I downloaded and swiftly deleted...) It's kind the same thing as how I'm really not shocked by anything that comes out of Bush and/or Rumsfeld's mouth anymore. They could pretty much straight up rename the Department of Defense to the Ministry of Peace, and I'd just be like, "Yep... Saw that one coming." That being said, this does seem like a particularly infantile move on Madonna's part. And couldn't she have at least shown a little imagination by doing a "techno" version of the "Nyah-nyah-nyah..." taunt or something?

There was a bit of a reaction that while not as interesting in the long term may bring the consumer viewpoint to her attention.

Edited by author 04-21-2003 10:45 AM
this story makes me happy. hopefully, everyone will see how much of an idiot madonna really is.

Only if there's no dispute as to whether Silver deliberately released a sucky movie. IANAL.

White Stripes has done something similar with tracks from Elephant. Do we have a clever name yet for this phenomena?

... so does this mean that if the next Matrix movie isn't any good, Joel Silver will lose the rights to the trademark?