During the morning of Wednesday, Aug. 27, Kevin “Skwerl” Cogill was arrested by the FBI for leaking nine tracks from the highly anticipated, long-awaited Guns N’ Roses’ album Chinese Democracy. Cogill, a 27-year-old music blogger at antiquiet.com, faces up to five years in jail and a maximum fine of $250,000. He has since set up a “defense fund” on his site to help him pay for his trial expenses and retain his freedom.
Cogill was officially charged with copyright infringement and arrested at gunpoint. Two hours later, The Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times were on the story. Cogill, music buff turned convict, is being made an example by the FBI for the disposal of his personal freedom and love for rock ‘n’ roll. Of the nine tracks leaked, only three had yet to be heard by the public. In fact, Cogill was the seventh party involved in the album’s 15-year anticipation to leak parts of the album. He was, however, the first to be arrested.
Prior to the production of Chinese Democracy, Guns N’ Roses released The Spaghetti Incident?, back in 1993. Since then, fans have witnessed the band break up, reconvene, perform a little and cancel a lot. When GNR started production of Chinese Democracy in 1994, Cogill was only just a teenager. That is when he and fellow GNR admirers would embark on a dormant journey of delay, one that would lead to the disillusionment and frustration of thousands of fans.
Unfortunately, the band did not dedicate the 18 years toward creating the new album. In fact, they did quite the opposite. In 1996, Slash quit the band, calling front-man Rose a dictator. Nine Inch Nails’s Robin Finck and Josh Freese joined the crew, in addition to Tommy Stinson of The Replacements.
With a $1 million persuasion from Geffen Records, Rose rejoined and Fink returned to Nine Inch Nails. At that point, Geffen offered Rose another $1 million in return for a completed album by March 1, 1999, but Rose failed to follow through. (Recently, owners of Dr. Pepper made their own offer, vouching to give a free can of its soda to everyone in America in exchange for a 2008 release date.)
Unable to complete their album, Guns N’ Roses began four national and international tours between 1999 and 2007. Both ended in ludicrous cancellations, disappointed fans and even some destructive riots. In 2002, MTV and national viewers were granted a rare three-song performance at the 2002 Video Music Awards.
But six years later, after most of us gave up on one of classic rock’s defining bands, Cogill gave us hope in releasing nine nearly-finished tracks. His “copyright infringement,” in my opinion, was a service to the fans and band combined. While he faces potential charges and time, Guns N’ Roses must now appease the added pressure of releasing their album.
With the media coverage and hype created by the leaking of the tracks, fans have regained interest in the stagnant band. When Guns N’ Roses management made the phone call to Cogill asking him to remove the tracks from antiquiet.com, they probably should have thrown in a thank you while they were at it.
Instead, Cogill was arrested. Not by local or state police, but by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He has been embarrassed and now disenfranchised for loving music and allowing others to do the same. This appears to be another instance of music labels becoming further disconnected with their fans.
Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this article are solely the views of the author, not the official position taken by The Cavalier Daily on the issue of copyright infringement.
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