Published at 2:00 PM on August 28, 2008

Guns N' Roses Chinese Democracy leaker gets arrested

Guns N' Roses <em>Chinese Democracy</em> leaker gets arrested

Seems like a few times a week now that we're reporting the latest in intellectual property news. But no matter how common the vicious leak-indictment-arrest-release cycle gets, it's, well, a cycle, which means it just keeps going 'round and 'round. It's like the world is stuck in a Ratt video.

Today's installment brings us to sunny California, where blogger Kevin Cogill, who goes by "Skwerl" online, was arrested outside of his Los Angeles home. The charge? Uploading those nine songs from Guns N' Roses' upcoming Chinese Democracy back in June. Although he's been cooperative (documentation of the arrest shows that he has already confessed to posting the tracks) his sentence could be up to three years in a federal prison and $250,000. And if Axl Rose or other violated property-owners wish to take it a step further (though Axl seems like he might be in a benevolent, sharing mood), civil penalties could be levied as well.

In a well-played reference to Abbie Hoffman, author of countercultural text Steal This Book, Cogill's fellow Antiquiet blogger Johnny Firecloud posted a call for support:

[A]nyone who feels like getting as equally theatrical as the feds (who were anything but quiet and graceful during their ass-crack-of-dawn descent on Skwerl’s sleepy house this morning) can come show their support with Britney and I today at the LA District Court on 255 East Temple. 2 PM. Bring your MP3 players.

Related links:
Antiquiet.com
GunsNRoses.com
NewGNR.com

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