by SHANE SINNOTT

A song that is possibly part of one of the most highly anticipated albums of 2009 was leaked last week to much fanfare. The track, called “Could Have Been You,” is produced by Dr. Dre, features 50 Cent and R. Kelly, and is believed to be from Dr. Dre’s upcoming—and final—album, Detox. What’s interesting, what with the no-holds-barred nature of pretty much everything these days, is that many blogs and Web sites removed the track or didn’t post it in the first place, out of what people are saying is “respect” for the man, or perhaps because he is reportedly “furious” over the leak. He didn’t even have to pull a Sleater-Kinney circa 2005 (when they begged fans not to download a leak of The Woods). Out respect for the doctor, I offer no link. Do a search.

Trent Reznor, on the other hand, is going all embracing-the-new-medium on us. On his NIN forum last week, he posted that he was contacted by a “shadowy group of subversives who SOMEHOW managed to film a substantial amount (over 400 GB!) of raw, unedited HD footage from three separate complete shows of our Lights in the Sky tour. Security must have been lacking at these shows because the quality of the footage is excellent. If any of you could find a LINK to that footage, I’ll bet some enterprising fans could assemble something pretty cool.” Bit torrent links to the video files are at tinyurl.com/762r5p, and let’s give Mr. Reznor a round of applause.

I also thank him for making Radiohead look like ever bigger jackasses. Back in the spring of 2008, they asked fans to remix the song “Nude” from In Rainbows at—get this—their own expense. You had to buy the five separate remix tracks, and only after purchasing them all, you received a code to access software for the remix. And of course, the terms of agreement say that fans have zero rights to their creations and it all belongs to Radiohead.

So here’s where I’m standing with 2009 leaks: unless you’re Dr. Dre, go the way of NIN. No one wants to look like a Radiohead.