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

[themsbreaks]

Copyright Infringement is a Federal Offense.

I know, but should it be?

In the system we all live under now, yes, I can totally understand why somebody would want to copyright something they create.  We all need money.

But wouldn't it be better if there was no money to be made by writing a song or a book?  Then all "information" type "property" would not be "property" at all.  It could be shared by all, and all would benefit.

Imo, the goal of a society should be to decrease the overall "workload" of the individual.  "Copyrighting" a song, or a book, or any other "informational" type thing (i.e. everything that isn't a physical, tangible object), creates more work for everyone.  Now, everyone has to go do some silly task to make more money to "buy" something that in reality, costs the creator of said something nothing to "give away".  Axl could "give away" his songs to everyone on the planet, and still "have" the songs.  Do you understand what I'm saying?

[jarmo]

Copyright Infringement is a Federal Offense.

I know, but should it be?

In the system we all live under now, yes, I can totally understand why somebody would want to copyright something they create.  We all need money.

It's not that simple.

Copyright doesn't necessarily have to be all about the money.

It's protecting what you created.


A song, a photo or whatever.

Yes, if you choose you can maybe make money on it. But it also protects you so that others can't steal your work.


Let's say you take a photo that you're proud of. It does nothing. It's a photo. People around you like it.

Then somebody takes it and sells it to a magazine.

You never even thought about making money from it. It was never your plan. But somebody else did.

Shouldn't your rights be protected somehow?




/jarmo

[FunkyMonkey]

Lawyer: Guns N' Roses Uploader to Walk

By David Kravets
November 13, 2008

The lawyer for Kevin Cogill, the Los Angeles man charged with uploading nine unreleased Guns N' Roses tracks from the upcoming Chinese Democracy album, said Thursday his client's plea deal with prosecutors does not require any prison time.

"We're looking at straight probation as a result of taking this deal," attorney David Kaloyanides said in a telephone interview. Probation, which includes minimal restrictions, is usually a year, he said.

Federal authorities acknowledged the deal Monday, but provided no details.

With the assistance of the Recording Industry Association of America, the 27-year-old Cogill was arrested last summer and charged with a felony carrying a maximum 5-year term. The authorities, which said he confessed, subsequently reduced the criminal copyright charge to a misdemeanor, exposing Cogill to a maximum year of confinement.

Cogill is accused of uploading the songs to his music site, antiquiet. Kaloyanides would not say whether, under the deal, Cogill would divulge where he got the tracks.

"We have agreed in a very limited fashion to provide information," he said. "We're still working with the government."

A plea date has been set for Dec. 8. Cogill remains free. The federal judge overseeing the case, however, is not bound by the agreement.

The album is expected to be released around Thanksgiving.

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/11/lawyer-guns-n-r.html

[axl082002]

Article here in the local Atlanta paper:

http://www.accessatlanta.com/hp/content/shared-gen/ap/Recordings/Blogger_Arrested.html

[FunkyMonkey]

^^And here, with a couple of quotes...

Man Pleads Guilty to Leaking Guns N' Roses Tracks

Updated 1:37 PM PST, Mon, Dec 15, 2008

LOS ANGELES -- A Culver City man Monday pleaded guilty in Los Angeles federal court to a misdemeanor count of violating federal copyright laws by leaking on the Internet songs from a then-unreleased Guns N' Roses album.

Kevin Cogill, 28, who uses the online name "Skwerl," admitted to U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul L. Abrams that he posted nine tracks from "Chinese Democracy" on the Internet blog Antiquiet last June, five months before the album was officially released.

"I got my hands on pre-release versions of Guns N' Roses songs --something my audience was heavily anticipating," Cogill told the judge.

Asked if he uploaded the material onto his Web site for financial gain, Cogill said he didn't, "but I understand all the attention helped me."

As part of his Dec. 10 plea agreement, Cogill agreed to cooperate with the government in any future investigations of the case.

Cogill faces a maximum of one year in federal prison, a $100,000 fine and five years probation when sentenced March 3, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig H. Missakian.

According to an affidavit, Cogill's arrest on Aug. 27 came after an investigator for the Recording Industry Association of America, a music industry trade group, told the FBI that a blogger using the name "Skwerl" had uploaded nine previously unreleased Guns N' Roses tracks to the Internet.

Officials said the Web site received so many hits after the songs were posted that it crashed.

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/entertainment/Man-Pleads-Guilty-to-Leaking-Guns-N-Roses-Tracks.html

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

They're letting this guy off easy.

[rotor]

 If he walks without disclosing the information of who & how they came into his hands I would not be satisfied, if not easy isn`t even close to what he did, with no warning of reprisal of others who will deviously continue down this same path. That would make no sense to have like maybe the same old, same old practice of the government coming in & flexing their muscles & waste how much MONEY & the sheer man power to bring this to a conclusion, a finding of what we have here all the time. An utter disregard of monies spent for nothing ? And they wonder why it is that we have come to the position that not only this Country but along with the rest of the World is now facing. That`s what I think we could really call SORRY...........

[jarmo]

Feds Demand Prison for Guns N' Roses Uploader
By David Kravets March 13, 2009 | 6:37:35 PM Categories: Crime 

Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles are pursuing a 6-month prison term for a Los Angeles man who pleaded guilty in December to one misdemeanor count of uploading pre-release Guns N' Roses tracks, according to court documents.

Kevin Cogill was arrested last summer at gunpoint and charged with uploading nine tracks of the Chinese Democracy album to his music site ? antiquiet.com. The album, which cost millions and took 17 years to complete, was released November 23 and reached No. 3 in the charts.

The sentence being sought ? including the calculation of damages based on the illegal activity of as many as 1,310 websites that disseminated the music after Cogill released it ? underscores how serious the government is about punishing those for uploading pre-release material.

"Making a pre-release work available to the worldwide public over the internet where it can be copied without limit is arguably one of the more insidious forms of copyright infringement," prosecutor Craig H. Missakian wrote in court documents. "That is because once released it is virtually impossible to prevent unlimited dissemination of the work."

As part of the 28-year-old Cogill's guilty plea, he informed the authorities that he received the music online and unsolicited ? a confession Missakian said might pave the way for more "targets" to be prosecuted.

"Needless to say, artists like the band Guns N' Roses put their blood, sweat, toil and tears into the creative process," Missakian said. "And this country has seen fit to protect their rights ? and in doing so foster and encourage the creative process by which all of society benefits."

The government claimed the amount of infringement equaled $371,622. The higher the number the larger the potential prison term. The government said it produced a "reasonable estimate" and gave the defendant the "benefit of the doubt" in its calculations, which were based on each infringement being worth 99 cents on iTunes.

The Recording Industry Association of America, however, told the judge overseeing the case that the defendant's conduct resulted in more than a $2.2 million loss based on a "$6.39 legitimate wholesale value" for the nine tracks the RIAA claims (.pdf) were downloaded about 350,000 times.

Regardless of the phantom figures, the numbers floated by the government and the RIAA assume that the music would have been purchased had it not been downloaded for free.

Here's how the feds concluded the $371,622 in damages:

They said the music was streamed from Cogill's site 1,123 times to 801 IP addresses over a two-hour period. The authorities, based on a "conservative estimate," concluded nearly 400,000 downloads.

"This number is based on a sample of 30 out of 1,310 unauthorized web sites that offered the leaked songs to the public between June 19, 2008 and November 21, 2008," Missakian wrote.(.pdf) "Of the 1,310 web sites identified as having unauthorized copies of the music that defendant streamed, 30 of those contained information showing the number of downloads from their sites."

Of those 30 sites, the government said there were 16,976 downloads of Chinese Democracy.

"It is most likely that this number represents the number of downloads of the group of 9 leaked songs, for a total of 152,784 downloads of individual songs (16,976 x 9)," Missakian wrote. "It is, however, not possible to say at this time whether the figure represents the group of 9 songs or individual songs. Giving the defendant the benefit of the doubt, the government will assume that the 16,976 figure represents downloads of individual songs."

But wait, the prosecution wrote more:

    In addition to the above number, the Court should also add an additional number for the number of downloads from the remaining 1,200-plus web sites that offered the songs for download. The average number of downloads from the 30 sites for which actual data exists is 565. Again, giving the defendant the benefit of the doubt, the Court could reduce that number by one half and estimate that each other site accounted for 280 individual downloads, or a total of 358,400 (1,310-30 x 280), during the relevant period. By taking the total number of downloads of 375,376 (16,976 +358,400) and multiplying that number by $.99 per song downloaded, the infringement about becomes $371,622.

According to court records, Cogill uploaded nine songs from the 14-track album on June 18. Court records show he confessed to the FBI. The case was cracked by an investigator with the Recording Industry Association of America, according to court records.

Cogill's attorney, David Kaloyanides, told the court that no jail time was warranted. (.pdf) He added that, "There is no way to determine how many downloads were made."

Sentencing is set for May 4.

By the way, the RIAA said it would be willing to accept $30,000, instead of $2.2 million in restitution, if Cogill "was willing to participate in a public service announcement designed to educate the public that music piracy is illegal."

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/03/feds-demand-6-m.html




/jarmo

[Albert S Miller]

The gent should indeed have some kind of punishment coming his way like I mentioned previously, I would definately agree to the 30k and the public service announcement if I were in his shoes, in all reality, how would he ever be able to pay back 2.2 mil in damages.

[Bandita]

I have a headache now from reading all that math.

[GNRFAN20]

It's a little extreme to go to prison just for 9 songs. They must be doing this to send a strong message.

[Albert S Miller]

It's a little extreme to go to prison just for 9 songs. They must be doing this to send a strong message.

It's obviously a little deeper than just 9 songs

[Jim Bob]

It's a little extreme to go to prison just for 9 songs. They must be doing this to send a strong message.

well maybe now people will think twice before spreading unreleased copyrighted material.

[D]

This is still kind of some bullshit

SOMEBODY in the GNR camp HAD to give this dude the leaks.

That guy should've sung like a bird.

[Bodhi]

This is still kind of some bullshit

SOMEBODY in the GNR camp HAD to give this dude the leaks.

That guy should've sung like a bird.

he was a fucking asshole for posting the songs on the internet..Im not going to lie, I know a few people who have slipped me some GNR demos over the years, ... but I didnt go posting them on the internet like a fucking jackass..

[D]

Don't get me wrong, I totally understand the punishment and think the guy deserves it

I am just saying, the guy didn't just happen to walk down the street and find them lying there. Someone had to betray Axl and give those up.

[Bodhi]

Don't get me wrong, I totally understand the punishment and think the guy deserves it

I am just saying, the guy didn't just happen to walk down the street and find them lying there. Someone had to betray Axl and give those up.

yeah finding the source would have been nice...

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

He wanted to be an internet hero.

Good job, clown.  I hope you like cocks up your ass.

[D]

He wanted to be an internet hero.

Good job, clown.  I hope you like cocks up your ass.

As they say in the movie "Airheads"

Small price to become a legend.

[RancidPunx]

Prison? Hell fucking no. There are REAL criminals who don't go to jail. We need the space for people who are threats to society. What a fucking waste of taxpayer money.

Insidious?

We're going to think this is adorably quaint when we're all broke and homeless in a globally fucked economy.

I'll be warming my hands at a burning trash can reminiscing about that evil dude who uploaded GnR tunes to the net. "Remember that fuckin' guy?? He was insidious."