Are The Feds Going To Make An Example Of The Guns N’ Roses Leaker?

Kevin Cogill, the Antiquiet proprietor who was arrested earlier this week for leaking nine songs from Guns N’ Roses’ eternally delayed Chinese Democracy, is out on $10,000 bond, and there’s a bounty on his head from none other than ex-Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash: “I hope he rots in jail,” the curly-haired guitarist told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s going to affect the sales of the record, and it’s not fair.” Whether or not Cogill does “rot” in jail (and pay fines, and possible civil damages) rests on the court’s interpretation of the the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005, which makes the pre-release dissemination of even one song a felony. The act hasn’t been used much; one notable occurrence of its enforcement came when two people who leaked Ryan Adams’ Jacksonville City Nights before its street date were subsequently sentenced to two months of house arrest and two years probation. But lawyers that the Times spoke to hinted that Cogill’s punishment could be a bit harsher, thanks to the continued bottom-line hit that the biz has been taking.

“In the past, these may have been viewed as victimless crimes,” said Craig Missakian, an assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles who built the case with the FBI and recording-industry investigators. “But in reality, there’s significant damage. This law allows us to prosecute these cases.” ….

Missakian, the assistant U.S. attorney, said his office would bring more cases like this in the future.

“Prosecution like this makes others think twice,” he said.

Another lawyer with less of an agenda chimes in:

Ronald Rosen, an entertainment industry lawyer, said record labels lost the public relations battle when they sued people who distributed music over file-sharing networks, with stories emerging of single mothers defending cases over songs they could have bought for 99 cents.

“But the public is going to have much less sympathy with pirates” who trade in pre-released material,” he said.

Which I think is a key distinction here. Cogill probably didn’t help his case by posting them on a site that had his name attached to it. He’s said over and over that he’s aware of the consequences of his actions; one wonders, if OiNK had been around, if just uploading them to that cordoned-off, semi-anonymous site would have caused the same seismic reaction from law enforcement–and if it would have given the Guns N’ Roses camp someone as prominent to blame. (Side note: I’d advise his co-blogger who said to the Times that Chinese Democracy is benefiting from the “pre-release publicity” to maybe do a Google News search on this album and see that it’s had more than enough of that.)

Blogger Kevin Cogill charged with felony in leak of Guns N’ Roses songs [LAT] The United States Of America Cares A Lot About Democracy [Antiquiet]