According to The Telegraph, U2 frontman Bono is considering rush-releasing the new U2 album (currently scheduled for a November release) via the iTunes music store if pirate copies turn up on the net. The singer told Neil McCormick:

“If it is on the internet this week, we will release it immediately as a legal download on iTunes, and get hard copies into the shops by the end of the month. It would be a real pity. It would screw up years of work and months of planning, not to mention fucking up our holidays. But once it’s out, it’s out.”

There are two ways to interpret this. If the theft was a publicity stunt, then the combination of the “theft” and a launch on iTunes means that U2’s album launch is the best bit of Internet marketing I’ve ever seen; if the theft was genuine, it’s the smartest response to dodgy downloads I’ve ever seen. Either way, the band deserves a round of applause.