How bad is it to stream music online before it has been released? If it’s material from the new Guns N’ Roses album, Chinese Democracy, then it’s bad enough to get you arrested by the FBI and face three years in prison.

Guns N’ Roses fans have been waiting almost ten years for the new album, now titled Chinese Democracy to be released. So it’s little wonder that there’s a certain amount of eagerness amongst the die-hards who have stuck with Axl Rose all these years to get their first listen of the new material. Unfortunately, one individual went way too far in this pursuit and streamed nine tracks from the new album on his website. He’s no facing time in jail for his crime.

I’ve never really been a fan of Guns N’ Roses, even in their glory days. However, even I am interested to hear what Axl Rose has spent the last few years doing. Which is why I was kind of pleased to hear several songs from Chinese Democracy had been leaked online. The band, and the authorities weren’t so enamoured with the development.

The blogger in question is Kevin Cogill, who posted nine tracks from the new Guns N’ Roses album on his website, antiquiet.com, in June. Traffic to the site immediately rose, eventually crashing the site due to thousands of eager music lovers rushing to hear the songs (streamed but not downloadable) before the inevitable happened.

The inevitability was that the lawyers would get involved, which they duly did do, ordering the removal of all the songs after just a few hours of them being uploaded. Although he complied with the takedown notice, that was just the beginning of the story.

Cogill was arrested by the FBI on August 27th, and now faces $250,000 in fines and up to three years in prison for his crime. The harshness of the possible sentence is made possible by a federal anti-piracy law which came in to effect three years ago, and which makes it a felony to distribute copyrighted work on a computer network before its official release.

Cogill received the tracks from an unnamed source and decided to put them online to fight against the continued delays to the album’s release and fudging of any details emerging from Geffen Records.

Opinions have obviously differed over whether this is an appropriate level of punishment for what amounts to making a handful of tracks available for a few hours online. The LA Times speaks to a range of people about it.

Former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash stated:

I hope he rots in jail. It’s going to affect the sales of the record, and it’s not fair. The Internet is what it is, and you have to deal with it accordingly, but I think if someone goes and steals something, it’s theft.

While Corynne McSherry, staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, argued:

Bringing that hammer down on an individual music fan strikes me as entirely inappropriate. Taxpayers should be concerned that they are picking up Hollywood and the music industry’s legal costs, particularly when you are going after an individual like this.

Cogill was stupid to try and get away with this, as he must have known what the consequences for his actions were going to be. But I do have sympathy for a man who faces more time in prison and a bigger fine than someone who has committed violent crimes against an individual often receives. Surely there’s no justification for that.

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Entry was posted on Friday, August 29th, 2008 at 2:55 pm under Blogosphere, Crime, Internet, Leaks, Music, Opinion, Piracy.

Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
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