A Swedish man is being sued by all three major record labels after allegedly hacking music industry executives to access unreleased music.
When we ran a piece on leaks earlier this year, a source told us that email hacks were a bigger source of leaked music than many would expect. According to Torrentfreak [via CMU], this unnamed 25-year-old man is accused of hacking record label email systems to download music from artists like Nicki Minaj [pictured] and Mary J Blige, which he then sold to DJs.
Prosecutor Fredrik Ingblad claims that “in the United States an investigation was launched into the stolen songs. The tracks led to Sweden through bank accounts and IP addresses … He hacked into the email accounts and got hold of unreleased songs, and songs that might have never been released.”
The accused man denies the charges against him, but could face fines and up to two years in prison if found guilty, as well as civil litigation from all three labels, Sony, Universal and Warner, who could claim damages of much more than the $12,000 he is thought to have made from selling the tracks.
