Screw GnR & Slash for their collectivist, greedy responses. They fully well know what side of the copyright game they are playing, & they need to grow the hell up & unhook the RIAA umbilical cord, and start raking in some hard earned dough.
The album is infamous, the band name is legendary (current line-up maybe notwithstanding); they would not be starving of money if they did this by themselves.
They should be paying this guy for actually proving that people care enough about Chinese Democracy to crash his site in a frenzy to get leaked tracks. Oh, and the media coverage that surely adds on to this.
I wouldn't be surprised if the "anonymous" source was a GnR member, honestly. 14 years of investment of time, money, & patience, what better way to see if the album will be a big inital seller or not than this.
Then let this sucker take the fall of violating your own copyright. I'm being cynical when I suggest that, really, but I wouldn't be surprised at what lengths rich musicians & celebrities would go through to ensure their popularity & wealthy status.
If anyone is interested in reading into copyright beyond the typical spiels & apologizing for ridiculous laws based on out-dated concepts of "intellectual property" (i.e. monopoly over a property), please see here:
Additionally, everyone martyers Napster & Shawn Fanning, Oink, etc., but fuck this guy for releasing a leak to a 14 years in the making album that was vaporware for the majority of those 14 years? B.S.
I will donate whatever I can to this guy's fund; he's a fu*king hero in my book.