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).
