News

The Village Voice lets us meet the Web Sheriff

12:58 p.m. · December 11, 2008 · by Andrew Winistorfer

The Web Sheriff has not been a stranger to these parts (especially when Animal Collective is involved), but not much is known about who the Sheriff is. Thanks to the Village Voice, we now know that the "Sheriff" is actually a group of 20 workers in two offices based in the U.K. who troll the web for what they perceive as illegal MP3s. 

Here are some excerpts detailing the Web Sheriff:

John Giacobbi says he started Web Sheriff—now boasting a 20-member "core team" with two U.K. offices and plans to open a third stateside—as a means to "take care of online-rights management for artists, managers, and labels, entailing everything from managing album leaks and manufacturing watermarked CDs and DVDs, right through to building and managing websites and YouTube channels, and actually filming and editing content for them," adding that the concept came about "through my long-standing representation of the Village People and the increasing amount of online issues that started to arise." Feel free to read that again.

 "We don't have a statistic or anything like that, but I can say quite categorically, yes, it has made a significant difference," he says of his company's efforts. He also touts the Web Sheriff's other pursuits, including aiding an artist when "a picture of his house and coordinates to the home" were posted on a fansite. His company's day-to-day routine consists of "watching" blogs, peer-to-peer networks, and torrent sites, all while listening to free music—surprisingly, his offices receive promos weeks or months in advance, just like the press. ("Well, we have to know what we're looking for.") The "Outlaws Gallery" featured on WebSheriff.com explains that other offenders include sites that "superimpose the heads of female stars onto hardcore images," plus a Moby fansite with a "Stalking Moby" section, here referred to as "disturbing."