Blogger arrested, accused of posting 9 unreleased Guns N' Roses songs

[lynn1961]

Then, again, where did this guy get the leaks from, in the first place?!? 

 

[Jim Bob]

I don't give a shit about leaks.  I'd rather buy the album, and hear what was finally, really released.  The done and real product.

Yes, posting leaks is stealing.  So is freely downloading music and movies, as well as copying.  Any one of us.....

I do understand the whole premise behind this.  I just don't understand why this guy has been made an example of, when many have done it before - and leaks of GnR have been posted before. 

This has nothing to do with "supporting the band".  Leaks are posted all the time, not just by GnR.  And there's more important things, in life, to deal with than GnR leaks...

for GnR and Universal, I'd say this is pretty important.

I spend several hours a month sending out C&D letters to take down my copyrighted content from being freely distributed.   That is my bread and butter and I don't like people fucking with that.   I'm sure anyone else (including bands like GnR) would feel the same way.

[gunns1]

theres heaps of youtube vids of the leaks,

will the people with youtube accounts also get a call from the fbi?
*excuse the pun*

I mean, this is a very hard subject to police, and I think the fbi are drawing even MORE attention to the leaks
and all this is doing is posting an article in a well known website/newspaper  that thousands/perhaps millions of people read
thus reminding the readers about gnr songs that have leaked, so they will now go and try to find them and download/listen to them...

I would of let sleeping dogs lie.. because all this is doing is stirring the pot just when it settled...
ah well, WELCOME TO U.S.A

[fuckin crazy]

Then, again, where did this guy get the leaks from, in the first place?!? 

 

Hmmm, I wonder. I'll donate what I was going to spend on the album to the "Free Skwerl Fund".


The same arguments were made when VCRs make their debut, and I put my faith in the opinions of the "Berger Court"; whose thoughts expressed the rights of man, and not some corporate dick out for a buck!!!

[gunns1]

Im glad to see the FBI have their priorities in order...
and a never ending limit of funds to go with it...

[[mango]]

So i guess Eddie Trunk and Piazza will be next ones? 

[gunns1]

I wonder if there will be a story now on the actual gunsnroses.com site,

see if they are supporting the fbi, or whether or not they care?

I mean... they have to be careful,
metallica supported the policing of Napster,
and look how many fans they lost cause of that

this is indeed a very grey area...

[Jim Bob]

I wonder if there will be a story now on the actual gunsnroses.com site,

see if they are supporting the fbi, or whether or not they care?

I mean... they have to be careful,
metallica supported the policing of Napster,
and look how many fans they lost cause of that

this is indeed a very grey area...

they have made a post on the gunsnroses.com site

[gunns1]

10 grand...

thats quiet alot of mulah for 9 song demos...

then again, it is illegal

How much time could he do in jail if he doesn't pay the bail?

anyone guess?

[Jim Bob]

10 grand...

thats quiet alot of mulah for 9 song demos...

then again, it is illegal

How much time could he do in jail if he doesn't pay the bail?

anyone guess?

if he doesn't make bail, he stays in jail until he appears in court.

[willow]

Jarmo I feel for you on this thread. Great job keeping track of all this!! I would go nuts!
peace out
amyl

[russtcb]

I honestly don't believe for one second that anyone posting in this thread hasn't heard all these songs and more. For that reason I can't see why anyone can get on a high horse about it.

Way to judge everybody based on your own actions.

Not everybody thinks like you.

Seriously?

How do I think exactly?

[georgie_beans]

Property crime is, in economic terms, the involuntary transfer of property from the owner to the criminal. Im sure Universal / GnR did not authorise this guy to leak the tracks, therefore a crime has been committed. Add to this the fact the Skwerl confessed both on his site and in a statement to the FBI. This is why he has been arrested. He has stolen these tracks, or at least received the tracks from the person(s) responsible for stealing them, and made the songs widely available over the internet (breaking copyright laws, and possibly causing a loss of future revenues for Gnr and the label). It seems that the potential magnitude of this crime (these songs could be worth millions of $ ? etc) has been lost on some people. Just because the crime has taken place primarily over the internet, it does not reduce its severity.

This guy's Na?ve attitude toward posting these songs has been unbelievable. If he did / does work for Universal then how he could be so stupid as to post these songs and take full responsibility, but expect no repercussions is beyond belief!

I really hope the people who think that this episode will be good publicity for Chinese Democracy turn out to be correct. Time will tell.

[Amish]

I will admit that I haven't read the entire thread, so this has probably been said.

Has anyone considered that the dude is only being arrested because Universal suspects him of stealing the songs from them?  He DID work for them, and most likely isn't "just a fan."  He probably signed a contract with them to keep his mouth shut about anything he did while working for Universal, so this is probably considered some kind of breach of contract, or worse, outright theft from the company. 

Don't you think?

It isn't a matter of "Oh my, he leaked these songs, let's arrest him!"

It only makes sense...no other fan has been arrested for any other leaks, and if you think about it, this dude only really leaked 3 songs.  The others were already out there, so I don't think it's an issue of numbers.

It's a different type of case altogether. 

[Where is Hassan Nasrallah ?]

Records are selling less and less because of these kinds of leaks.

People are losing their jobs.

It's naive to think that the record companies are just gonna sit and watch this happen without doing anything about it.




/jarmo

havent posted here for a long time, but i had to react to this BS!

Seriously jarmo ... lets be reasonable here ....


*

[Bandita]

10 grand...

thats quiet alot of mulah for 9 song demos...

then again, it is illegal

How much time could he do in jail if he doesn't pay the bail?

anyone guess?

if he doesn't make bail, he stays in jail until he appears in court.

It was 10k tentative bail, which means he didn't post anything.  It only comes due if he doesn't appear on September 17.

To the person that said that's a lot, it really isn't.  As far as bail is concerned, it's nothing at all.

[ClintroN]

Jarmo, r' you tellin' me you have NO downloaded songs in any format at all of any band??



if this dude has been arrested, then it should happen with every artist to stop this insanity call download!!
it really has to stop somehow!!

[DeN]

im going to put my two cents into this, just cause im bored and have nothing else to do.

do i download tracks/albums from torrent sites...yes.  i use that as a radio really.  and i know alot of others use it as a "radio" as well.  now, where i live i have two rock radio stations, classic rock and modern rock.   its hard to even find new music that is any good out there on the radio.  i think most of us could agree with that.  but then there is the wonderful world of the internet.  if i find a band that looks interesting i find some songs or an album on a torrent site and download it.  if i like it enough, yes...i do BUY it.  sometimes i feel like im the only person in the world who still buys cds.  now if i dont like it, i delete it from my computer.  have i harmed anybody by doing this?  NO.  i have downloaded the all of the GnR leaks, when the full album leaks i will download it as well.  and on the day of the release, i will buy a physical copy of the cd.  hell i bought the NIN new album and it is free...per Trents wishes.  now not everybody does this and yeah, that can be a problem.  people do want stuff for free.

onto this guy who put the songs on his blog.  i dont think he stole it from someone.  maybe he did, i dont really know.  but im going to go out on a limb and say he recieved it from someone.  which is still wrong to recieve stolen stuff.  instead of punishing this guy they need to make him talk.  some here have already said something about a paper trail.  i somewhat blame the record company and the gnr camp for the leaks.   someone close to the band is leaking this stuff.  or they are just careless.  there was that story a few years ago where Axl had played some finished tunes at a club.  he handed the dj the cds and they were played.  whos to say that dj didnt copy those cd/s???  someone close has simply gotten careless and maybe made a copy of a disc for a friend or accidently left a disc somewhere.  there are many possibilities i guess.  if axl or management would keep it under lock and key there would be no leaks.  imo its hard for multilple songs to leak to the net.  three GnR songs leaked.  then one a week later.  then some more a few years later.  i dont hear about this going on with any other band.  
now, when a disc is mastered and ready to be copied where does it go exactly??  does it go to the distributers?  do they make the copies?   because i would bet money that someone who works at one of those places, are the ones who leak the albums before an albums release date.  yes im sure they are signed to contracts and shit saying they wont take a copy out or something like that.  but, that contract is only as good as the person signing it. CD will leak just like every album out there and there is NO stopping that.  this guy does not deserve prison for what he did.  the prison system is already over populated and he would do more good by doing community service paying a fine and probation.  he is small cut in a bigger problem.

yes, it is wrong to take something that is not yours.  and while there are many to blame for "illegal downloading" the one who should be blamed the most are the record companies themselves.  the more you act like nazis, the more people will revolt.  this case along with others the records companies and riaa have sued does nothing but piss people off.  there for the cycle continues.


if i were axl i would look around me and see who has copies of the new songs...then i would take em back one by one.  like i said, the leaks go all the way back to the gnr camp and/or the record company.  find the source of the problem, and eliminate it.

totally agree with what you said (the bored thing included)

the guy acted like a moron, the record company acted stupidly, they don't understand the world we live in today,
I thought that beetween dumb people communication was possible and find a decent arrangment, but I was wrong.
It's not good publicity at all for the band. people will laugh again about guns n'roses, and it's not a good thing, really.

[pilferk]

...Keep supporting the major labels, THEY are the reason we haven't seen CD yet. CD has been done but all the bullshit hassle behind the scenes with Universal/Interscope is a joke. I'm honestly surprised the entire record hasn't somehow leaked by now. As soon as it is sent out to manufacture the record will be leaked no doubt, I can't think of a mjaor release that hans't leaked in the past few years.

Universal is just looking for a way to recoup some of the money from this album through this lawsuit. Anyone who thinks that Universal will be able to recoup their money through CD sales is so naive its disgusting.  Coldplay, Foo Fighters, U2, NIN, and Metallica are all on the SAME level as GNR these days, due partly to the decade absence Axl pulled. None of their latest records sold amazing like some people on here think CD will.

Like it or not, when the record is released the die-hards will buy it but there is just so much unknown about this version of GNR to the public that I have a strange feeling most will just pirate the album and give it a listen, if they like it they'll check them out on tour instead of buying the official release. The good news is GNR see 10x more money from touring than record sales.

People are misunderstanding, here.

What we're talking about in this thread is not a civil suit. It is a criminal one.  IT'S NOT A LAWSUIT.  Universal is not suing him for damages (yet, it'll come, I'm sure).  Any fines levied will be CRIMINAL fines.

[gunns1]

Records are selling less and less because of these kinds of leaks.

People are losing their jobs.

It's naive to think that the record companies are just gonna sit and watch this happen without doing anything about it.




/jarmo

havent posted here for a long time, but i had to react to this BS!

Seriously jarmo ... lets be reasonable here ....


*

leaks always happen with the new gnr,

and really , with any big band in the world today...

Its inevitable, and its a FACT of life now...

sueing someone/arresting 1 person/whatever , when there is a collective group of people who have contributed to this
is utterly Stupid...

Sure, mabye they are thinking this will "scare people off"
but in actual Fact,
it would take someone 2 seconds to:
1. Get their usb drive with the unleaked songs
2. Go to an internet cafe and upload it to megaupload/rapidhare
3. Post it on the net

I think the FBI are getting very trivial and quiet childish if they think that making an example out of 1 PERSON!
will lead to anything but More attention on the gnr leaks that are out their currently (and are all over youtube)
for more of the non -diehard fans, the general public to find out that their is leaks , and go listen to them and download them,
I mean if they didnt before hand, now they are reminded to do so..

I mean, I know theres no such thing as bad publicity, but in this case...
I think their is with this story.