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After posting 9 tracks from the unreleased Guns N’ Roses
album “Chinese Democracy” on his blog in June, Kevin Cogill is now facing up to
three years in prison and $250,000 in fines under a law concerning individual
bootleggers.
The blogger thus became the first Californian charged under
the anti-piracy federal law issued 3 years ago, which stated that it is a
felony to distribute copyrighted work on computer networks before its official
release.
Cogill was arrested Wednesday by 5 FBI agents at his Culver City apartment and
was released on $10,000 bond.
Nevertheless, a Guns N’ Roses curse has already been cast
upon him by the band’s former lead guitarist Slash, who stated: "I hope he
rots in jail. It's going to affect the sales of the record, and it's not fair.
The Internet is what it is, and you have to deal with it accordingly, but I
think if someone goes and steals something, it's theft."
The blogger used to work for Universal Music, is currently
working at Crave Online-an entertainment site-and uses his blog called
Antiquiet to express his views on American politics and the music industry.
Under the name Skwerl, he posted that he had waited half his
life for a new Guns N’ Roses material and on June 18, he announced that an
unnamed source had given him 9 tracks from the “Chinese Democracy” album and
afterwards made them available only for streaming-and not for download, too-on
his blog.
For the entertainment industry, the fight to protect
official release dates and against bootlegging has been a long and hard one.
The Recording Industry Association of America has been using civil lawsuits to
put people off leaking unreleased songs until the Family Entertainment and
Copyright Act of 2005, which enforces felony charges, came into effect.
In 2006, two people were sentenced to 2 months of house
arrest and two years' probation after distributing on the Internet a version of
“Jacksonville City Nights,” the at that time yet-to-be released Ryan Adams
& the Cardinals album.
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