Man Arrested for Internet Posting of Songs from Unreleased Guns
N’ Roses Album
(FBI)
Special agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation this
morning arrested a Culver
City man on charges that he violated federal copyright laws by posting
nine songs from Guns N’ Roses’ unreleased album Chinese
Democracy
on his website.
Kevin
Cogill, who uses the online moniker “Skwerl,” admitted
to investigators that he posted the songs on his website, www.antiquiet.com,
according to a criminal complaint.
Cogill,
27, is expected to make his initial court appearance this afternoon
in United States District Court in Los Angeles. If Cogill is
convicted of the copyright infringement charges, he faces a
maximum statutory sentence of three
years in federal prison, or five years if proven that he did it for financial
gain.
An
indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every
defendant is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty. The
investigation into Cogill was conducted by the FBI, which received assistance
from the Recording Industry Association of America.