Federal officials on Wednesday arrested a blogger for posting on the Internet songs from the upcoming Guns N’ Roses album entitled “Chinese Democracy” without the legendary group’s authorization.
According to E! Online, FBI spokesman Thom Mrozek said that agents captured 27-year-old Kevin Cogill at his residence in Culver City.
Kevin Cogill, who went by the moniker “Skwerl” online, is charged with violating copyright laws by placing nine of the rock band’s unreleased songs on his Web site, www.antiquiet.com, so that net surfers could listen to the tracks.
Skwerl posted the nine tracks online in June and wrote a message in which he encouraged visitors to listen to the yet-unreleased Guns N’ Roses tracks.
“I always said that the more that Axl and Geffen jerked around trying to figure out how to release this finally finished album that we’ve all been waiting over 13 years for, the greater the chances would be that it would slip out of a pressing plant or office somewhere and wind up in the hands of some asshole with a blog,” the message read.
Legal representatives for Guns N’ Roses sent Kevin Cogill a “cease and desist” letter requesting him to remove the songs from his Web site, court documents reveal, according to AFP.
In addition to this, a person replied, under the name of “Skwerl,” and said in an email that besides the fact that he put the tracks on the Internet, the big number of antiquiet’s visitors overcame his computer server and caused its breakdown, the FBI reported. He added that the songs had been removed from the Web site’s machines.
Bail has been set at $10,000 and preliminary hearing was programmed for September 17. If Kevin Cogill is found guilty of the copyright infringement charges and the motive is established to be financial profit, he may face three to five years of imprisonment.
The rock band’s spokesman Larry Solters said on Wednesday that Guns N’ Roses’ representatives have been informed of the arrest and “are leaving the matter to the authorities.”
When questioned, Kevin Cogill admitted to having posted the songs on his Web site, according to an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint. Nevertheless, the man did not say how he procured the tracks on the upcoming Guns N’ Roses album.
“So remember when we let you guys listen to some (allegedly, ha) new Guns N’ Roses songs we got our hands on?” Skwerl wrote on his Web site on Monday.
“Well, either way the FBI sure does. They’ve been investigating and talking to me about that event ever since. If there are any lawyers out there horny for some high-profile copyright law battle, drop us a line,” he added.
Prosecutors assert that revealing the tracks on the Internet could prove to be of great damage to the band in what concerns lost revenues.
Guns N’ Roses have sold an estimated 90 million albums worldwide, including 39 million in the United States. The band is presently working on its upcoming album “Chinese Democracy,” which has been in production for more than a decade. Once released, the album will be the first original recording from the rock group since the 1991 releases of “Use Your Illusion I” and “Use Your Illusion II.”
