Talking of dodgy things being flogged via the internet, The Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins has confirmed he has bought a copy of his own new album via eBay for £350. The band's second album, 'One Way Ticket To Hell... And Back' isn't released for another month, but a promo copy found its way on to the Australian branch of the auction site. Keen to stop the album leaking online ahead of its release, Hawkins bid to stop anyone else getting the album. The singer's record label should also be able to figure out which journalist or industry player passed the album on to the eBay seller because all promo copies of the CD sent out so far have that crafty unique ID code on it which links every CD (and the tracks on it) to whoever it was sent to.
Hawkins told the BBC: "I've bought our own album back off this character who's selling it on eBay. It cost me £350 and it's going to be a tenner when it's in the shops - with artwork. It's encoded so we'll have a name and a number - so we'll know which disc it is, who distributed it and who they distributed it to. And that person is going to go down. He is either going to get some sort of legal intervention or he certainly won't receive an album from our record company ever again."
A spokesman for the BPI told reporters that the sale of music in this way via auction websites like eBay was increasingly common: "Time and again, we have seen eBay being abused by individuals seeking to make a quick profit on the back of our members' copyrights". However, a spokesman for the auction site said that neither the law nor their own rules "specifically prohibit" the resale of advance CDs.