Kanye West was considering legal action against the Pirate Bay last month after his album, The Life of Pablo, became a hot illegal download—but apparently that doesn't mean he's above a little piracy himself. On Tuesday, the rapper tweeted a photo showing that he was listening to a Sufjan Stevens song on his computer. But, as Ars Technica points out, a close examination of the photo shows a few other suspicious browser tabs that, taken together, indicate he was attempting to illegally download Serum, music editing software that costs $190. One of the tabs reads "Pirate Bay Torrent," although Ars Technica thinks he was actually using a rip-off version that goes by the same name as the "real" Pirate Bay torrent site.
"What the f--- @kanyewest ... Can't afford serum? Dick," tweeted Deadmau5, the music producer who also co-founded Xfer Records, the maker of Serum. He added, "Let's start a Kickstarter to help @kanyewest afford a copy of Serum." And then: "He needs a small loan of 200$ #prayforyeezy." Indeed, there was briefly a GoFundMe campaign set up to help West afford Serum, 9 to 5 Mac reports, but it's since been taken down. Ars Technica notes that Kanye got "hundreds of angry tweets" about his apparent piracy, but he has yet to respond. Or, as the Verge points out, of course, the whole thing could be "part of some performative joke." (Here's what Kris Jenner thinks of Kanye's Twitter habits.)