Possibly the best publicity stunt of the year.

Exactly - all the way down to the street teamer/1st time caller (who's nickname is from the Chinese Democracy song "There Was A Time" -cute) that started this thread.

At any rate - If this type of thing warrants a visit from the FBI, Shawn Fanning would've been executed by now.

Izzy did it!

Holy shit, you're a genius! God forbid a GN'R fan signs up here!

http://www.buddyhead.com/2008/06/21/buddyhead-rapper-1-guns-n-roses-if-the-world-remix/

Buddyhead hit the nail on the head finally.

Izzy did it!

This is all Azoff. Wasn't it Rolling Stone who had all the inside info on the Van Halen tour before everyone else? And the very first photo of the new lineup? He must have someone there willing to post these bullshit fabricated stories. I still don't see the logic in leaking the nine, clearly unmixed, unmastered tracks though...

I'm the first one to name pretty much anything like this as a publicity stunt, and the GNR leak sure sounds like one.

But.

Would the Feds wittingly get involved in such a thing?
And if they didn't know, and find out, will the whole thing blow up like an exploding cigar in Azoff's (or whoever's) face?

Agreed, and great logic on all accounts teverett. My bet is, since this was a former Universal employee, they knew if they put the proverbial "hot potato" in his hands it would leak. On the other hand, if the Feds are investigating, and this was not orchestrated in any manner, then GN'R and Azoff were lucky in a way, and are getting priceless publicity from this. Nonetheless, one thing has now been proved, the album is at the label, as this leak came from Universal

The other part that screams phony publicity stunt is that Axl's "Good Friend" Sebastian is suposedly doing an interview to spill the beans on how good the record is and this and that? Obviously Sebastian is friends with Axl and knows the guys an egomaniac, he would NEVER grant Rolling Stone or ANYONE an interview to discuss Axl without his permission. Get real.

This would not be Irving and certainly not Axl.

One hears that the "negotiations" are not done to provide Axl with what he wants that would enable a release.
The master has been delivered but the chances of it being in the hands of someone from distribution is fair to none.

Now if Jimmy wanted to speed things along.....maybe something could accidently leak.
Forcing the hand and some nice press.
Just saying.

could the leaks have come from a former manager?

Maybe my mind is not working correctly due to travel and a lack of sleep, but what is Abbe getting at here (odd sentence structure is throwing me off)?:

"One hears that the "negotiations" are not done to provide Axl with what he wants that would enable a release."

To paraphrase, are you saying the negotiations are not completed yet, thus their is no release

Would the Feds wittingly get involved in such a thing?