GNR uploader Kevin Cogill pleads ‘guilty’
p2pnet news view RIAA | Music:- “Years of procrastination and outrageous gossip, much of it true, have surrounded Chinese Democracy, the long-awaited new album by the rock band Guns N` Roses,” says Times Online of, well, Chinese Democracy.
The phrase ‘Chinese Democracy’ speaks for itself. It’s like ‘Honesty of the RIAA’.
And “long awaited?” Not even nearly.
Meanwhile, “FBI agents raided the Los Angeles home of 27-year-old blogger Kevin Cogill and arrested him,” p2pnet posted in August, quoting Dan Tynan and going on »»»
Cogill’s crime? He uploaded nine unreleased tracks from the upcoming Guns N` Roses album to his blog.
The album is titled “Chinese Democracy.” Now there`s an oxymoron for you.
Cogill admits to posting the files last June so GnR nuts could stream them off his music blog.
He took them down when he received a cease and desist letter, and cooperated with the FBI in its investigation. According to Wikipedia (admittedly not the most reliable source) six of the songs had been made available in some other form and three were new.
… Cogill`s looking at three years in the pokey and fines of $250,000, plus whatever damages the band might choose to pursue.
Now he’s agreed to plead guilty to one federal count of copyright infringement as part of a deal, says Wired, going on:
” ‘Yes. There is a plea deal,’ (.pdf) Los Angeles federal prosecutor Craig Missakian said in a telephone interview.
“Kevin Cogill, who the FBI said confessed to uploading the nine songs last summer to his music site, antiquiet, is scheduled to enter a plea Dec. 8. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“Still, authorities reduced the charge from a felony to a misdemeanor last month — a move that exposes him to a maximum one-year prison term, down from the previous five years. Because of an acceptance of responsibility and the defendant’s lack of a criminal record, the 27-year-old Cogill is likely to receive substantially less time, if any.”
Still in his jammies
The day before our post quoted above, ” ‘Johnny and I sat on a pew in the U.S. District Court building in Downtown L.A. as Skwerl CCogill) sat behind glass, in handcuffs, and still in his jammies since the FBI arrested him at 6:59 this morning,’ said Britney Bernstein in Antiquiet,” stated p2pnet, adding:
“Ironically, a Google NonSense ad immediately above the headline, The United States Of America Cares A Lot About Democracy, says, ‘Guns N Roses & Other Top Artists Download Unlimited Songs At No Cost’,” linking to despised corporate site Spiralfrog.
Britney went on »»»
After five or so other cases were presented, the United States of America presented her case against Skwerl. The proceeding was mostly about what his bail was going to be set at. The U.S.A. requested bail be set at $50,000. Skwerl`s court-appointed attorney thankfully called B.S. on that one and recommended his bail be $5,000 and that this case is the kind of case where the defendant should have been summoned to appear instead of being accosted by five F.B.I. agents at his home in a quiet neighborhood.
Interestingly, the Judge chimed in to add that he had actually recommended that it be a summons case and wasn`t sure why it went down as it did. He also dismissed the idea presented by the U.S.A. that squirrels be forbidden to use the internet.
In the end, the Judge ruled that his bail be in the form of a signature bond at $10,000. What that means is that Skwerl has to remain within the Central District of California until his next court date or someone has to cough up that 10k. So for now, he`s home Stay tuned.
Moving forward, a preliminary hearing has been scheduled for September 17th at 4:30 PM and the arraignment for September 22nd at 8:30 AM. Both will be at the U.S. District Court Building, and the address is 255 East Temple Street, Third Floor, in Downtown Los Angeles.
Skwerl, Johnny, and I appreciate your concern and warm wishes during these hard times as we deal with Democracy.
Good job, Robin Finck, Tommy Stinson, Axl Rose, Richard Fortus. You must be really proud of yourselves.
Times Online – Guns N` Roses and Chinese whispers, November 9, 2008
p2pnet - Guns ‘N Roses, the RIAA and Chinese Democracy, August 29, 2008
Wired – Guns N’ Roses Uploader to Plead Guilty, November 10, 2008
p2pnet – RIAA, Big 4 labels, gang up on Skwerl, August 28, 2008
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It`s really easy!Subscribe to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php
Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details.
November 11th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Since he posted the songs openly, without trying to concel his identity in any way, we could assume he might have been unaware that his unselfish act of sharing is now considered criminal copyright infringement.
November 11th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Forget it. I was planning on buying GnR’s CD. No more.
Something isn’t stealing just because an entire rotten, crooked, bribed judicial system and corporate owned media say so.
November 12th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
First, “ignorance of the ‘law’ is no excuse”. Even if that ‘law’ is completely ignorant (stupid) itself.
Second, GnR has always been assholes. Their music sucks! So no loss here.
November 12th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
For “Unselfish act of sharing” read “to stupid to be allowed to breed” . He gets what he deserves , just swap GNRs name for whatever your favourite artist is , the usual deflection by idiots above by focusing on the band by the usual filestealing lowlife .