Lars Ulrich becomes the sort of person Lars Ulrich wants locked up

Who is illegally downloading Metallica records?

Lars Ulrich, it turns out:

“I sat there myself and downloaded ‘Death Magnetic’ from the internet just to try it,” he said. “I was like, ‘Wow, this is how it works.’ I figured if there is anybody that has a right to download ‘Death Magnetic’ for free, it’s me.”

Ulrich and six of his friends supped on a bottle of wine at the drummer’s house and used an unnamed file-sharing client to download the album, which was released last September.

“We found it - this was like two or three days after it leaked. I was like, ‘you know what? I’ve gotta try this.’ We sat there and 30 minutes later I had ‘Death Magnetic’ in my computer. It was kind of bizarre.”

It's not clear if Lars realises that while he was downloading his record, it was also being made available for upload, and that he was, in effect, illegally sharing his own record - using the RIAA "like stealing CD" metaphor, that's "helping thieves carry pinched stock to their getaway car", of course.

Let's hope the RIAA turn up and drag him through court - if "it was my daughter, and I have no money" fails to melt the RIAA hearts, "but it's my record" will merely elicit hollow laughter.

[Thanks to Gary W for the link]