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TechCopyright

Kanye West Outs Himself As Pirate Bay User

By
David Meyer
David Meyer
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By
David Meyer
David Meyer
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March 2, 2016, 3:52 AM ET
Saturday Night Live - Season 41
Photograph by NBC NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Kanye West’s new album has been pirated many times, so maybe that’s why he’s enthusiastically browsing file-sharing sites?

West tweeted a screenshot of his browser, most prominently showing a Sufjan Stevens track playing in YouTube(GOOG), but also displaying other tabs including one for the Pirate Bay. Judging from that tab and those around it, it seems West was at least looking at a pirated copy of the $189 software synthesizer Serum.

https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/704873833564659712/photo/1

Deadmau5, another famous producer, tweeted(TWTR) something quite rude at West in response, expressing surprise that he can’t afford to pay for the tool.

West chose to launch his The Life of Pablo album on the music-streaming service Tidal (also backed by Deadmau5) rather than put it out for sale, which is possibly why it was pirated half a million times in its first day of release. He was subsequently reported to be planning a chat with his lawyers over the money-sapping leak.

The rapper-producer recently claimed he was $53 million in debt and asked Facebook(FB) chief Mark Zuckerberg to invest $1 billion in his “ideas”. That apparently hasn’t happened yet.

Let's start a Kickstarter to help @kanyewest afford a copy of Serum.

— Goat lord (@deadmau5) March 2, 2016

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