• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, February 20, 2009

U2 manager Paul McGuinness has famously pressed for measures to protect musicians from the unauthorized distribution of tracks on the Web.

Last year, at the Midem music industry convention in Cannes, he made an impassioned call for ISPs to police the Web for copyright violations. "For ISPs in general, the days of prevaricating over their responsibilities for helping protect music must end," he argued.

So it's ironic that the party responsible for the latest online leak is the group's own record label.

Earlier this week, the Australian branch of Universal Music Group began selling downloads of the group's new album, "No Line on the Horizon," which wasn't slated for release until March 3. Within 10 hours, there had been more than 100,000 downloads on BitTorrent, according to TorrentFreak.

Not even U2's tough security measures -- like eschewing review copies, according to TorrentFreak -- were enough to prevent the accidental leak.

s Still, the leak might not prove all that damaging to U2. Last year, Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails last year raked in huge sales revenue, even though they made free downloads available.