Chinese Democracy Pirate Cops A Plea

The threat of three years in the slammer and $250,000 in fines can be pretty persuasive.

That’s what the man arrested by FBI agents for streaming unreleased Guns N’ Roses tracks was facing. That is, before he struck a deal with the feds.

Kevin Cogill, who maintains a blog called Antiquiet, posted the tracks from the band’s long-awaited Chinese Democracy in June after receiving the songs from an unidentified source. Cogill did not make the tracks available for downloading, choosing instead to stream them from his blog. Cogill eventually removed everything after hearing from the band’s lawyers.

Two months later, on Aug. 27, Cogill had the FBI on his doorstep asking about the tracks. Cogill admitted he posted the streams on his blog and was eventually arrested on music piracy charges that, if convicted, could have resulted in three years in prison and $250,000 in fines.

Now Reuters reports Cogill has agreed to plead guilty to one federal count of copyright infringement when he appears at a Dec. 8 hearing. With the exception of Cogill’s new pleading, no other details about the plea agreement have been released.

Chinese Democracy is scheduled to be released Nov. 23.