U2’s manager, Paul McGuinness, has made it clear that file sharing ISPs are vile leaches. U2’s new album, No Line on the Horizon, had a pre-release protocol that went lockstep with McGuinness’ opinion. Universal Music Group refused to release review copies and instead invited the media to listening parties, sans recorders.

It’s nothing new – Linkin Park successfully launched albums using this method. And U2 had reason to be concerned, with four songs reportedly leaked in a unique way: Apparently, Bono listened to tracks in his vacation home a little too loud, and a passerby recorded the songs on a cell phone.

So how could such tight coverage still result in U2’s album getting online, with tracks now getting traded in top digital quality? The simple answer is Universal Music Australia put the tracks online, for sale, a week early and by the time they realized their mistake, the tracks were getting traded for free.

But why stop there when one can imply that this is payback for U2 getting an early payout for its Live Nation stock? Or maybe it’s because U2 has yet to weigh in on the Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger? Plus, Bono hasn’t taken a stand on the bailout package.

Plus, U2’s weeklong appearance on David Letterman has caused NBC, which is ready to launch the Jimmy Fallon show, to sic General Electric on the case. Did you know that Universal Music Group is NOT part of the NBC Universal merger? So what.