'Rebel Heart' was leaked by an Israeli hacker at the end of 2014, prompting Madonna to bring forward the release and formally put the leaked tracks for purchase on iTunes.
After what’s been a pretty bad week for Madonna with that on-stage fall at the Brit Awards, there’s some good news at last. The Israeli man suspected of leaking tracks from her forthcoming album Rebel Heart, having hacked her computer, has been formally indicted.
39 year old Adi Lederman was arrested five weeks ago, and has now been officially charged by Israel’s magistrate courts on four counts of computer hacking and leaking unreleased music. The court documents were originally obtained by The Hollywood Reporter show the individual charges to be computer trespassing, prohibited secret monitoring and additional computer trespassing, copyright Infringement and obstructing an investigation.
Madonna, performing at the Brit Awards above, had her new album leaked by an Israeli hacker
Lederman was able to do this by hacking the private cloud accounts of three people close to the recording of the album – Sara Zambreno, Angie Teo and Kevin Antunes – as well as her manager Guy Oseary’s e-mail account. He then sold the files to an unspecified person.
More: Madonna’s Brits fall was scarier than you think
The January 21st arrest was precipitated by a month-long investigation by a private detection company in Israel at the behest of Oseary, and ultimately involved the FBI-Israeli collaboration agency Lahav 433’s cybercrime unit.
The original leak caused Madonna to release six of the Rebel Heart tracks through iTunes to combat it. Upon Lederman’s arrest last month, she said: “Like any citizen, I have the right to privacy. This invasion into my life — creatively, professionally and personally — remains a deeply devastating and hurtful experience, as it must be for all artists who are victims of this type of crime.”
No trial date has been set, but according to Israeli legal experts Lederman faces up to five years behind bars if found guilty.
The official release date of Rebel Heart is March 6th.
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