As for studio people ripping CD's, it doesn't make any sense....An album can be seriously jeapordized by it being leaked to the net first, at least in the eyes of the labels. It would only hurt the situation for the studio/engineer....Who wants to use a studio/engineer that they can't trust to keep the project under wraps?...
As for me...I take CD's with me all the time, but they are NEVER converted to MP3's, nor do I let any of them out of my possession. I actually destroy them after I'm done listening to what I need to listen to....
My guess is that it's "friends" of the artist or people in the promotional chain...They have nothing to lose personally by the album leaking, and someone always wants to be the "first" with a copy of the album...
As for Tech's stuff, we give copies to NOONE except Trav and several people at MSC... The promo CD's going out was beyond our (Chapman's) control...I probably wouldn't have sent out the whole album, but that's me...
Roberto