Guns N’ Roses Leaker Gets Plea Bargain

On November 23, Axel Rose will finally release Chinese Democracy, the album by Guns N’ Roses that has been fifteen years in the making.

On November 23, Axel Rose will finally release Chinese Democracy, the album by Guns N’ Roses that has been fifteen years in the making. Soon after the album’s release, Kevin Cogill, the suspected blogger who made nine tracks from the album available for steaming, will also end his saga. Speaking about the case, Los Angeles federal prosecutor Craig Missakian announced Monday that, “There is a plea deal.”

According to the announcement, Cogill will plead guilty on December 8 to one federal count of copyright infringement for uploading nine tracks from the upcoming Guns N’ Roses album to his website, antiquiet.com, this past June. Authorities originally charged Cogill with a felony count for violating Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005, which makes it a felony to share pre-release copyrighted material. Cogill was the first Californian charged by authorities under this law, but because he lacks a previous criminal record and because he has already offered an admittance of guilt, authorities reduced the charge against Cogill to a misdemeanor. With this reduction, Cogill will face the possibility of a maximum one-year prison term, substantially less than the felony maximum of five years. Missakian did not speculate on Cogill’s likely sentence, deferring instead to the court’s authority by saying, “His sentence is up to a judge.”