A 27-year-old man from Culver City, Los Angeles, was arrested Wednesday by federal police on suspicion of violating federal copyright law after posting online nine previously unreleased songs from 1990s rock icon Guns N’ Roses.

Kevin Cogill, 27, seems to have taken his admiration for Guns N’ Roses one step too far by posting nine previously unreleased tracks on a website, inviting fellow Guns N’ Roses fans and anyone else interested to listen to the rare audio gift.

The nine tracks appear on the band’s upcoming new album, “Chinese Democracy,” and mysteriously made their way into Cogill’s hands.

Ever the generous blogger, Cogill put them online on www.antiquiet.com in June. His move was a success, from one point of view, as the site soon crashed.

According to court papers, Cogill eventually removed the tracks from the site, when the band intervened. Larry Solters, a spokesman for Guns N’ Roses, said the band “had been made aware of the arrest and are leaving the matter to the authorities.”

Cogill appeared in court on Wednesday and was released on $10,000 bail. He faces a maximum of three years in prison if convicted, and five years if he is found to have had a financial gain from his action.

Cogill is due to appear in court again on 17 September. Prosecutors said the leak could lead to “significant” financial loss for Guns N’ Roses.

The arrest was welcomed by the Recording Industry Association of America, the main trade group fighting the proliferation of music online.

"The arrest of Kevin Cogill is great for the recording industry related to our online investigations. We are very pleased with the FBI's interest and the US attorney's office's aggressiveness in pursuing this investigation," said Kathy Leodler, the RIAA's director of investigations. "We think we'll see more and more of these pre- release cases."

The rock band gained momentum in 1987 with the release of “Appetite for Destruction” and was greatly successful in the following years. Its last album to be released is 1993’s “The Spaghetti Incident?”.

Guns N’ Roses have been working on “Chinese Democracy,” which has no official release date yet, for a decade.

A new song from “Chinese Democracy,” titled “Shackler’s Revenge,” will be available for legal listening starting with September, when Harmonix and MTV Games release Rock Band 2.

He should be arrested for bad taste

They should be giving the guy free backstage passes for life and hand him over the management, not suing or arresting him.
Someone's got to make the decision to finally release the thing, *hint, hint Axl*

Voodoo Chile in Wonderland wrote on Aug 29^th, 2008 at 6:28am:


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I think the way you handled it was beautiful. I still have no idea how in the world or where you got them and guess what .... I won't ask .

Regardless, the way you did it was like giving us a sneak peak at lower quality audio samples which in no way even came close to letting the whole thing out of the bag. It was done quite tastefully. I was impressed.

**Although I CERTAINLY agree that Chinese Democracy is completely a different story. Fans have been told so many times the record was coming out and it hasn't. There is STILL no release date. It has been ten years and still there is no official word (even if there was you have to ask yourself ..would anyone take it seriously?). I say, in this scenario it is perfectly fine. As far as Chinese Democracy goes I have little to no interest. I lost patience with this years ago. They cannot do it so someone has to do it for them. In actuality it serves them right.

Ian

lotsajizz wrote on Aug 31^st, 2008 at 12:13am:


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Well so they say. Not a single thing any official statement that was released came to light or panned out so I don't know how anyone can go on the assumption that tracks that are "supposed" to be on there will be. Heck anything is possible (or impossible..) when it comes to the material and this album. Maybe some other material we weren't aware of would show up as well? I am sure some things we'd know but who knows exactly what would be released if it ever actually DID happen.

Then again, ...who cares


Ian