August 28th, 2008
Guns n Roses leaker faces prison time
How he got ahold of them, he’s not saying but LA blogger Kevin Cogill did get ahold and posted unreleased songs from a new Guns n Roses album, Chinese Democracy. Cogill awoke Wednesday to find five FBI agents hauling his ass into a federal district court, charged for violating the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005, cnet crave reports.
That law might sound like Chinese democracy to you but it’s actually truly the law of America:
The Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005 makes the sharing of pre-release copyright material a felony punishable by up to three years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines.
On Cogill’s blog, Antiquiet, buddy Britney Bernstein reported on the proceedings:
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.
Wired notes that Axl and Co. could file a civil infringement case against Cogill for $1 million-plus … if they could take the negative PR.
