Metallica's attitude to illegal downloading may have seemingly relaxed of late, but their record company, Universal, are not budging on the topic. After a reviewer for Swedish publication Sydsvenskan admitted that he preferred an illegal downloaded alternative version of the band's new album, 'Death Magnetic' to the official release, a scheduled interview was duly cancelled.
President of Universal Music Sweden, Per Sundin said: "The reviewer is referring to a BitTorrent where someone has altered the original songs. The reviewer explains exactly where one should go in order to download the file that totally infringes on a copyright. It's not only an illegal file, but an altered file. The reviewer also writes that this is how the album should have sounded. File-sharing of music is illegal. Period. There's nothing to discuss. That fact - that Sydsvenskan has a writer that has downloaded this music illegally and then makes mention of an illegal site in his review - is totally unacceptable to us".
So, that's him told.