GUNS N' ROSES Uploader Gets House Arrest, Will Make Anti-Piracy Ad

David Kravets of Wired.com reports that a Los Angeles man who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of uploading pre-release GUNS N' ROSES tracks was handed one year probation and two months' home confinement Tuesday after agreeing to cooperate with the Recording Industry Association of America to produce an anti-piracy message.

Cogill, a 28-year-old blogger known as "Skewrl", was arrested in August 2008. He was charged under a four-year-old federal anti-piracy law that makes it a felony to distribute a copyrighted work on computer networks before its release.

Ex-GUNS N' ROSES and current VELVET REVOLVER lead guitarist Slash slammed Cogill in a 2008 interview, telling the Los Angeles Times, "I hope he rots in jail. It's going to affect the sales of the record, and it's not fair. The Internet is what it is, and you have to deal with it accordingly, but I think if someone goes and steals something, it's theft."

Assistant U.S. attorney Craig Missakian, who pursued the case with the FBI and recording industry, said, "In the past, these may have been viewed as victimless crimes. But in reality, there's significant damage."

Cogill posted the songs at the Antiquiet web site, where they were available for public access. The site crashed from the amount of traffic it received once word of the leaked tracks got out. Cogill took them down again after he was contacted by representatives of GUNS N' ROSES.

Kevin Cogill spoke to Sky News's Martin Stanford in June 2008 for a three-and-a-half-minute report which can be viewed below.