Franz Ferdinand decide they don't like pirates after all

Back in August 2007, the BBC released a collection of cover versions to mark Radio 1's 40th birthday. Franz Ferdinand suggested that, rather than buying it, it would be more apt to help yourself:

"The whole shabang doesn't appear to be for charity so point your browsers towards Limewire soon, kiddies!" the band said in a statement.

It's all fun and games until... oh, it's your own label whose music is being pirated. Now, the band are sending WebSheriff after fans who have posted Tonight onto the torrents:

On behalf of Domino Records and Franz Ferdinand, we would kindly ask you not to post copies of ‘Tonight’ on your site. We do appreciate that you are fans of / are promoting Franz Ferdinand, but the label and artist would greatly appreciate your co-operation in removing your links to the pirate files in question.

Web Sheriff have also instructed the people getting letters - sometimes simply for posting links to other sites which had long since taken down the actual files. Oh, and demanding apologies:

You must also arrange for the following apology to be published on the relevant page of the site for a period of seven (7) days : “RSLOG wishes to apologies to Franz Ferdinand, Domino Records and Web Sheriff for the disruption caused to their sales, marketing and promotion plans by our publishing of pirate file details relating to the unreleased album “Tonight”.

It's not just the complete change in attitude from the Ferdinand camp; but if they do feel the need to chase down filesharers, couldn't they find a less embarrassing way of doing it?