This is similar to the recent release that Trent Reznor made in early March, when he released his album by way of BitTorrent. We're not sure that Lessig, Reznor or anyone over at Radiohead are particularly pleased to have their preferred release license used and endorsed by Charles Manson, but it does say something about the licensing scheme, and how pervasive it's become (or perhaps more about the traditional record release model, and how bankrupt it has become).
It's his monstrosity, precisely, that should make you curious about his art. If you want to know how a demon's mind works, whether out of curiosity or a higher motivation like protecting yourself from similar men, you have to be willing to open the shutters, admit he exists, and look at what he's done. We've seen art drawn from human suffering before - but from the perspective of the sufferers. You only have to worry about looking at life from the perspective of the inflictors of that suffering if you're worried you aren't good, if you're worried you might be infected somehow by him.
It's an interesting defense - and a likely two word encapsulation of that defense would be 'morbid curiousity.' I personally haven't listened to the music or read the lyrics, but they're supposed to be the most gentle, hippie-happy stuff you've ever heard. What's more, from the looks of the record label website, support from Family Jams (Manson's record label) goes out to a number of eco-friendly causes.
So Manson's hitting on the green meme, the free music meme, the P2P meme... just about everything today's hip geek is all about. They're definitely on track to package this as a Web 2.0 crowd hit.