G N’ R Leaker Arrested

Federal Authorities have blogger Kevin Cogill in custody on suspicion of violating federal copyright laws for his suspected posting of nine unreleased tracks from Guns N’ Roses’, purported never-to-be-released-in-this-lifetime, album Chinese Democracy.

Federal Authorities have blogger Kevin Cogill in custody on suspicion of violating federal copyright laws for his suspected posting of nine unreleased tracks from Guns N’ Roses’, purported never-to-be-released-in-this-lifetime, album Chinese Democracy.

On June 18, Cogill, under the alias Kevin Skwerl, leaked the Guns N’ Roses tracks in question on his personal website, antiquiet.com. He soon removed the songs from the website, but not quickly enough, as copies later appeared on other internet sites as well as on various peer-to-peer networks.

Speaking to Rolling Stone magazine’s Rock and Roll Daily on June 24, soon after the FBI questioned him about the incident, Cogill brashly defended his posting saying, “If legal proceedings come my way, I’ll face them 100 percent. I’m not afraid of that. I did what I did, and I’ll face the music if I have to.”

As the FBI continued their investigation however, Cogill began to change his tune. In a post to his website on August 25, perhaps realizing his impending fate, he said, “More and more each day, it looks like I may be indicted,” before going on to ask “If there are any lawyers out there horny for some high-profile copyright law battle, drop us a line.”

Two days later, Cogill’s nightmare came true when FBI agents arrested him at his Culver City, California home. Assistant U.S. attorney Craig Missakian expected Cogill to make his first appearance in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles yesterday.

Meanwhile, it is rumored that Chinese Democracy will have a fall release date as a possible Best Buy exclusive, although this has yet to be confirmed as true.