A 27-year-old blogger was arrested and released on $10,000 bail after being accused of streaming songs from the unreleased Guns N' Roses album "Chinese Democracy" on his web site without permission.
Kevin Cogill, also known as Skwerl, uploaded the songs onto his Antiquiet web site in June for all visitors to hear. Shortly there after he received a cease and desist letter from Guns N' Roses lawyers, and then reportedly removed the songs from his web site. His web site reportedly crashed due to the heavy server load from visitors heading to the web site to listen to the unreleased tracks.
According to an FBI affidavit, Skwerl admitted he posted the songs online and thought he would not be in trouble after the songs were removed from the web site. But the issue wasn't so simple, and he recently went back to his web site to talk about the issue.
"So remember when we let you guys listen to some (allegedly, ha) new Guns N' Roses songs we got our hands on?" he quizzed viewers to his web site. "Well, either way the FBI sure does. They've been investigating and talking to me about that event ever since. If there are any lawyers out there horny for some high-profile copyright law battle, drop us a line."
Guns N' Roses plans to release the anticipated yet delayed album soon, with one song even promised to appear in the latest "Guitar Hero" video game.
Posting the songs online could lead to the popular band losing money in revenue from song sales, prosecutors said.
Cogill faces up to three years in imprisonment, or up to five years in prison if prosecutors can prove he posted the songs online to make a profit. He faces up to $250,000 in fines, plus possible civil lawsuits from Guns N' Roses and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
If you're wanting to grab headlines and get some more visitors to your web site, fine... but being so crass in regards to the FBI and the possible jail time and fines you're facing? Good luck with that one. :/
Law is about profile, is it? That's all I ever see. I hope he goes to jail. Why post songs from an unreleased CD? I mean, I hate the huge muscling the RIAA and associated organisations are doing on small-time private issues, but what this guy did is quite different, and his attitude about it, too..! Sorry, but my sympathies lie elsewhere with people who deserve them.
Sounds like the US tax payers are helping corporate America to catch civil criminals rather than the top 10 most wanted.. The FBI must have allot of spare time on their hands these days now that the DMLS has made the country safe..
Remember in the old days when people could go to a building, endorsed and paid for by the government, and read FOR FREE all manner of books? I still don't know how those authors managed to survive with so many people reading their books for free, but it happened. I was there.
If you can't do the time, don't do the crime.
They have CDs in libraries now why aren't libraries sued someone could copy the CD that file-sharing and piracy on the library's part.
Yup, I'm SURE guns'n'roses aren't going to be able to make a house/car/grocery payment because some smartass posted songs from an as of yet unreleased album.
That's not really the point I know, but what a lame excuse. Tell it like it is, it's the law, and that's just the way it is. And as stated previously that guy deserves jail for his attitude about the whole thing (breaking the law notwithstanding)
Holy hell, lost revenue my ass.
Will you look at all that punishment for a measily file full of data that will be a CD collecting dust in a bargin bin in a year? He could've killed the copyright lawyer bastards and gotten a lighter sentence. 
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