After a two-day legal stand-off between The Offspring and their record
label, Sony Music, the band has canceled plans to offer Conspiracy
of One for free downloading on their website before the Nov. 14 release date.
“We were two seconds away from having a ‘Reservoir Dogs’ ending to this matter,”
Offspring manager Jim Guerinot wrote in an e-mail to sonicnet.com on Friday. “We
both had lawsuits ready to drop in New York Friday morning.”

The band finally backed down because the lawsuits would have effectively shut them down for
a significant amount of time. The Sony suit
would have prevented the band from offering the album
online and would’ve nixed the $1 million contest for fans. The Offspring’s suit would
have prevented the band from releasing Conspiracy of One this year and would’ve
delayed a planned tour. As it stands, the band will still offer a free MP3 of the album’s
first single, “Original Prankster.” As part of the
promotion, fans can register to win $1 million in a contest initially
linked with the planned full-album offer. The single download will be
available through the band’s official site, offspring.com, as well as
other Web outlets including MTV.com, radio station sites and retail
sites.

Source: Sonicnet

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