50 Cent Album Leaked on Net, Early

The Massacre, Rapper 50 Cent's newest effort is the latest to suffer from having an album show up on the net prior to it being released in stores. The retail version has been "Ripped" in high quality VRB MP3 format and can be found via Torrent, and via Edonkey or Emule with the ED2K link found at the end of the story.

Its being reported that Interscope is planning to release the album five days early to help combat this leak. If they where smart one would think they would make the album available via download at their legal sites like iTunes, as soon as they learn of an online leak. That way their customers are at least offered a legal alternative to "stealing" the album. But one could argue that if it's not available for one to buy how is it considered stealing to download it for free? This is far from the first big album to fall to an early online leak of late. Eminem, U2, and Greenday all say their newest mega hit albums show up on the net before being available in stores.