14 DAY TRIAL // A blogger has been arrested by the FBI because he was hosting, on his personal webpage, nine songs from the Guns n' Roses yet to be released “Chinese Democracy” album. In fact, the tracks were uploaded in June and they were removed that same month, both because of several server failures, caused by the increased Internet traffic directed to the blog, and because the band members contacted him and asked him to remove all spoilers.
Kevin Cogill posted the Guns n' Roses tracks in order to give something to the fans of the band, who could no longer wait for the official release. The last Guns album was released 13 years ago, with “Chinese Democracy,” their most recent project, having already been postponed several times so far. Authorities warned the blogger that his “generous act” could lead to a drop in the sales of the album, which is one of the most dramatic consequences of copyright infringement.
A few days before five FBI agents (as his friends say) came to Cogill's house to pick him up, he already had a vague idea about what was about to happen. A post dated two days before the arrest, for instance, was in fact a cry for legal assistance. “More and more each day, it looks like I may be indicted. Pardon the self-indulgent post, and I may just be tripping, but just in case… If there are any lawyers out there [looking] for some high-profile copyright law battle, drop us a line.”
The man was taken in at approximately 7 a.m. from his home and, thus, his first appearance in front of the judge was in a very casual outfit, or, as his girlfriend said on the blog, “still [wearing] his jammies”. The maximum bail that the judge could have set would have been of $50,000. However, the ex-officio attorney of the defendant claimed that a $5,000 bail would be fair enough, since he was not a dangerous criminal. According to his girlfriend, the bail was finally set at $10,000, which, if not paid, will prevent the blogger from leaving the Central District of California. The preliminary hearing in his case was scheduled for September 17.
Although skeptics believe that the whole scandal is just a PR stunt meant to increase sales for the “Chinese Democracy” album, it's somehow hard to believe that the FBI would have arrested a person only to gratify a rock band and a record label.