While the music industry is slowly but surely coming around to the internet (took them long enough), it can still be a major bane to their whole way of doing business when it comes to albums finding their way onto the web ahead of release.

Just this week Perth outfit Tame Impala saw their third album, Currents, one of the most highly anticipated releases of the year, leak onto the internet a whole week ahead of release, and earlier this year Bjork’s Vulnicura was leaked months ahead of its scheduled release date.

However, while Bjork’s management team managed to business their way out of the trouble zone and Tame Impala don’t seem too fazed about the leak just yet, pop queen Madonna has decided that anyone who crosses her must suffer.

As some readers may recall, it was widely reported earlier this year that her most recent album, the divisive Rebel Heart, had leaked onto the internet and that an FBI investigation had actually managed to find the culprit.

This was a pretty remarkable case, since album leakers are rarely caught, if investigated at all. Often there is no way of knowing who leaked an album nor at which point in the recording or distribution process it appeared on the web.

What made the case even more unique is that the leaker was in fact a former contestant on Israel’s version of Australian Idol and he’s now been jailed for 14 months as a result of the leak.

As the Sydney Morning Herald reports, Adi Lederman was sentenced by Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court to 14 months jail as part of a plea bargain for selling demo tracks he stole by hacking into the email and cloud accounts of people close to Madonna.

Lederman confessed to computer trespassing and infringement of privacy and property rights in connection with the offences he committed last year. In addition to his lengthy stay in jail, he was also fined 15,000 shekels ($5,300).

As court papers reveal, Lederman sold the Rebel Heart demo tracks to two buyers at $US300 each after copying the files from cloud accounts whose passwords he obtained after hacking email servers used by Madonna’s musical director Kevin Antunes, talent manager Guy Oseary, and two other people.

[include_post id=”451781″]

“The ease with which crimes such as this can be committed by those who have skills in the field, such as the accused, require an appropriate punitive response that has a deterrent and uncompromising message,” the court said in a statement.

Lederman’s lawyer argued for leniency, telling the court that his client was “not someone with a criminal mentality, but rather, a very fired-up and impassioned collector who went too far”. The lawyer also claimed Lederman had health problems, though declined to go into detail.

The 39-year-old Lederman, whose hacking pursuits also managed to grant him access to the singer’s work diary, was arrested back in January following an FBI investigation. The unfinished Rebel Heart had first appeared online a month earlier.

Speaking about the crime, Madonna called it an “invasion into my life – creatively, professionally and personally (that) remains a deeply devastating and hurtful experience”. The singer is set to bring her Rebel Heart Tour to Australia next March.

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.
to Rolling Stone magazine
to Rolling Stone magazine