Though it's their decision who gets alpha releases, I think not letting us plebians get acess to it soon after is pretty rude
Just chill OK? The CD's were handed out at the meet because I thought it would be a cool thing to do. If I'd been going to a meet in California or Iceland and the timing was right the same thing would have happened. I liked the idea of throwing around a few dozen CDR's with TOP SECRET printed on them. It was a laugh, and if you haven't worked it out yet, that's what the whole empeg thing is about.
So 40 people have got a preview release (which isn't really useful for anything more than playing with - it screws up with choppy playback after a while) who otherwise would not have done. You may resent their luck but I have to say I'm not losing sleep over it. What you SHOULD be complaining about is the extraordinary quantity of beer and meat products that you missed out on!
Rob