FBI arrests blogger accused of leaking Guns N' Roses tracks
The FBI on Wednesday arrested a Los Angeles-area blogger on suspicion of violating federal copyright laws after he allegedly streamed tracks of the unreleased Guns N' Roses album Chinese Democracy on his Web site.
Kevin Cogill, 27, caused quite a stir earlier this summer when he allegedly began streaming nine songs from the album, which has been 15 years in the making, on his blog Antiquiet. The traffic crashed his site almost immediately, and shortly afterward the songs were removed at the band's request. But users who recorded the streams quickly made the songs available on file-sharing sites. It's unknown how Cogill allegedly acquired the material.
The FBI began investigating the incident in late June, and earlier this week Cogill posted a plea for legal help on his blog, writing that, "more and more each day, it looks like I may be indicted."
The Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005 makes the sharing of pre-release copyright material a felony punishable by up to three years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines. According to his arrest affidavit, Cogill admitted to posting the songs, reports the Los Angeles Times.
Cogill was due to appear in the Los Angeles District Court Wednesday afternoon.
UPDATE: According to a post on Antiquiet, Cogill was released under a $10,000 signature bond and is scheduled to appear at a preliminary hearing on September 17.
Michelle Thatcher has been reviewing technology products for nearly a decade. Her current focus is laptop reviews, with some kitchen gadgetry and Web 2.0 thrown in for good measure.
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He deserves what he gets, for obstructing the right of an artist ownership of their own work. They didn't even have the chance to release their material before he posted their material.
He deserves it. Yeah, people these days just want to take whatever they want to take, but there has to be limits.
It's a sad world we live in where streaming music is considered a horrendous crime and we waste lots of time, money and resources to convict a blogger where there are far more serious crimes going on that actually have an effect on society. Imagine if we channeled all the energy wasted on hunting down people who download music and actually use that go after drug dealers, rapists, gangs, etc... you know, REAL CRIME?
As if he actually had the right to do so. If Rose or GNR didn't feel any of the material was ready to be released, then it's their right to do as they please. Cogill's actions were self-serving and tromped over the band's own right to their own material.
This seems to be more going after the little guy as opposed to the actual source as various torrent sites seem to be either too elusive or too numerous to actually stop. The only point to sending 5 FBI agents to arrest a non-violent intellectual crimes offender as opposed to sending a summons is to send a message. Had there not been the FBI, this story wouldn't have made the news, and the copyright holders wouldn't be generating news stories that people, such as myself, whom have never visited said blog nor have listened to Guns N Roses would have known about this.
the fact that he was just streaming (and streaming is the keyword here...) the songs and was ordered to remove them (which he did) doesn't give the fbi the right to arrest him because of someones else's actions. i'm not condemning what he did, but come on. the fact that the riaa and the u.s. government can do this is appalling. every citizen of the u.s. should be peaved that the government has allowed a group of lawyers representing a washed up rock star to have this kind of control. the dmca and most of the copyright laws in place in the u.s. are garbage and should be treated as such.
http://www.piracyisacrime.org/In-The-Courtroom/updated-information-about-guns-n-roses-leak.html