SLASH On 'Chinese Democracy' Leaker: 'I Hope He Rots In Jail'

August 29, 2008

According to the Los Angeles Times, GUNS N' ROSES and the group's former guitarist Slash have commented on the arrest of a California man on copyright-infringement charges for posting on his web site nine songs from GUNS N' ROSES' yet-to-be-released album "Chinese Democracy".

Kevin Cogill (a.k.a. Skwerl),27, is accused of posting the songs, which were being prepared for commercial release, on the Internet blog Antiquiet in June. The site crashed under the traffic, and he removed the songs after a few hours when the Los Angeles-based rock band's lawyers complained.

Now he faces up to three years in prison and $250,000 in fines. On Wednesday he became the first Californian charged under a 3-year-old federal anti-piracy law that makes it a felony to distribute a copyrighted work on computer networks before its release.

"I hope he rots in jail," Slash told the Los Angeles Times. "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."

GUNS N' ROSES released a statement: "Presently, though we don't support this guy's actions at that level, our interest is in the original source. We can't comment publicly at this time as the investigation is ongoing."

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