Blogger Pleads Guilty In Guns N' Roses Chinese Democracy Leak Case

LOS ANGELES — A man accused of leaking nine unreleased tracks from the Guns N' Roses album "Chinese Democracy" has pleaded guilty to a federal copyright violation.

Kevin Cogill entered the plea Monday morning in a Los Angeles courtroom.

Prosecutors accused him of leaking the album online on his blog, months before Axl Rose's long-delayed opus arrived on store shelves. A document shows they agreed to recommend probation in exchange for the plea deal.

Cogill admitted he leaked nine of the 14 songs that appeared on the album, but has not publicly stated how he received the tracks. His plea agreement requires him to cooperate with investigators.

According to his plea deal, Cogill could be sentenced to a year in federal prison, probation and a hefty fine.

Comments

[RobinSeattle]

Boy, the HuffPo editors dropped the ball again. Slash left Guns and Roses over a decade ago. So using that picture was a non sequiter.

Get with the times editors.

[ZimboChick]

Sux...was kinda hoping it was Perez. He would have sung for the feds like the tweety bird that he is

[Bushisgone]

Yea the album sucked
Who care about G n R's

Its not even GnR anymore

[BeaverBob]

Chinese Democracy is awesome. But why the pic of Slash? He actually hasn't been involved in the band since the mid-90s.

[ZimboChick]

People at HuffPo are still new at this. I have seen three misposts - this week alone - and its only Tuesday

[rjkelly34]

axl's still waiting for his free dr. pepper too...

[FantasticJuan]

Nobody knows where he got the tracks. No different than politics and unnamed sources. My guess is its someone at a PR company or record label (or someone associated with them somehow).

[DS3M]

ugh, who wanted to steal and leak that piece of garbage anyway?

[btdenver]

Why do you have a picture of Slash with this story? He wasn't involved in that train wreck.

[CvillePatrick]

Bloggers, journalists, and websites that "advertise" and actively promote the links to these ill-gotten gains should be culpable as well. For example, PerezHilton.com recently featured the link to a site that posted the new Britney Spears album before it was released. Hilton encouraged his readers to download the album for free.