Some dude posted a New Pornographers b-side to his blog. Web Sheriff sent him a condescending take-down notice and a dumb-assed follow-up. EFF’s Fred von Lohmann is outraged:

Here’s my question — does the band know what is being done in their name? Have they signed off on these emails being sent by Web Sheriff to their fans? Are they getting copies of the responses that the fans send after getting threatened like this? (For that matter, are the label’s own marketing people even seeing these?) I suspect not.

That’s the problem. No artist would talk to a fan like this (and if they did, they should be ashamed), to the person who just bought their forthcoming album. But the copyright enforcement lawyers are on auto-pilot, without any accountability to the artists or to the fans, threatening people, suing people, and all the while insisting that this is just how copyright law works.

I’m guessing Matador will not fire Web Sheriff. They’re very controlling when it comes to their mp3s…

• The New Pornographers – “My Rights Versus Yours”

• The New Pornographers – “Myriad Harbour”

From Challengers, due August 21. Pre-order.

Via bb.