Have you ever wondered how an album gets out before its official release date? By a process called bootlegging. A person gets a hold of an album and makes a copy and then leaks it to the rest of the world. Bootleggers not only leak albums but demos, rare tracks, b-side tracks and session recordings.

Most recently, bootleggers have leaked recordings from many popular artists, including Korn, Linkin Park, Metallica, Cradle of Filth, Nine Inch Nails and System of a Down.

For some, this an issue and others it's not. Even though the music industry has tried many times to stop illegal music downloading, some argue that they simply made things worse.
Music downloading has been a craze for years. Bootleggerss have utilized such programs as Kazaa, Morpheus, Ares, Limewear and Winmx and these programs aren’t helping.

As if that wasn't enough, there’s also something called BitTorrents which is a protocol designed for transferring files. It is person-to-person, as people connect to each other directly to send and receive portions of the files. Now isn't that still downloading music? Of course it is, because you must download the file first in order to get the music.

Now the issue is that people are stealing from record sales by leaking albums. That, in turn, takes away from the artist by letting someone get a hold of the album before it hits store shelves. Then the record labels are faced with an issue of whether to push the release date back or keep the date that it’s set to release.

Criminal penalties for first-time offenders can be as high as five years in prison and $250,000 in fines. Civil penalties can run into many thousands of dollars in damages and legal fees. The minimum penalty is $750 per song. Now there’s food for thought. So my music loving reader:: Don’t do it! Or be prepared to pay the piper.