A man accused of leaking nine unreleased tracks from the Guns N' Roses album "Chinese Democracy" has pleaded guilty to a federal copyright violation. Kevin Cogill entered the plea Monday morning in a Los Angeles courtroom. Prosecutors accused him of leaking the album online on his blog months before Axl Rose's long-delayed opus arrived on store shelves.

The 28-year-old internet blogger, who posted nine songs onto his website, Antiquiet.com, in June, faces up to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine. The leak included six tracks that had appeared before in unfinished form and three songs - 'Rhiad and the Bedouins', 'If the World' and an unnamed track – that were all apparently new productions.

Cogill's charge was reduced yesterday from felony to a less serious offence because of his cooperation with authorities to help identify the source of the leak.

Assistant US attorney Craig Missakian said, "I think the Internet affords a level of anonymity to people that lulls them into believing that what they are doing is either not criminal or beyond the reach of the law. But that's certainly not the case."

The album, which was over fifteen years in the making, was one of the most anticipated releases of the 21 century.

Guns N' Roses was born in Los Angeles, California in 1985. The band, led by co-founder Axl Rose, has gone through numerous line-up changes and controversies since their formation but that has not stopped them from releasing six studio albums, two EPs and one live album during their career.

Guns N' Roses has sold an estimated 100 million albums worldwide, including over 42 million in the United States. The band's 1987 major label debut album Appetite for Destruction has sold in excess of 28 million copies and reached number one on the United States Billboard 200. In addition, the album charted three Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including "Sweet Child o' Mine" which reached number one.

The 1991 albums Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II debuted on the two highest spots on the Billboard 200 and have sold a combined 14 million copies in the United States alone. After over a decade of work, the band released their follow-up album, Chinese Democracy, in 2008.