“I hope he rots in jail,” stated former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash a few months ago when Kevin Cogill was charged with leaking the band’s newest album Chinese Democracy before it was released.  Federal prosecutors would like to see Cogill get a 6 month prison term for leaking the tracks.  He was arrested in August at gunpoint for uploading 9 tracks from Guns N’ Roses’ incomplete album at the time.

The music was uploaded to Cogill’s website antiquiet.com.

Uploading the tracks before the album was released is estimated to have caused hundreds of thousands in damage.  The album took 17 years for the band to put together and did not get past #3 on the charts.

“Making a pre-release work available to the worldwide public over the internet where it can be copied without limit is arguably one of the more insidious forms of copyright infringement,” stated prosecutor Craig H. Missakian in court documents. “That is because once released it is virtually impossible to prevent unlimited dissemination of the work.”

Cogill confessed to the FBI that he was responsible and will be sentenced on May 4.  However, the RIAA stated that they were willing to accept $30,000 instead of a $2.2 million find as long as he was “was willing to participate in a public service announcement designed to educate the public that music piracy is illegal.”

If I were him, I’d take that offer, the RIAA is being pretty lenient here.

[via Wired]

“I hope he rots in jail,” stated Slash, former Guns N’ Roses guitarist. “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.”

Kevin Cogill is a music blogger that resides in Culver City, Calif. Cogill leaked 9 unreleased tracks from the upcoming Guns N’ Roses album, “Chinese Democracy.” Cogill will either go to jail for 3 years or pay up to $250,000. Five FBI agents arrested Cogill at his apartment after he published the leaked tracks.

After Guns N’ Roses’ lawyers complained about the leaked tracks, Cogill immediately removed it this past June. Cogill was charged under with a 3 year old anti-piracy law that states that copyright work cannot be distributed on a computer network before the release.

Cogill used to work at Universal Music and currently works on a site called Crave Online. Cogill published the leaked songs on Antiquiet. Antiquiet published the news about their blogger’s imprisonment here.

The FBI questioned Cogill about where he got the music from. After Cogill asked the FBI whether his case would be closed, they told him that his troubles have not even begun.

Guns N’ Roses have been working on the “Chinese Democracy” album for over 10 years. Guns N’ Roses is currently signed with Geffen Records.

Related Link:
1. The L.A. Times