FBI Plays Starring Role as IP Bully by Arresting Blogger
Blogger arrested, accused of posting 9 unreleased Guns N' Roses songs
Those of you old enough to remember Woodstock in "real time" or to have attended yourself, you'll no doubt recall the magic moment when the concert producers decided to tear down the fences and make the concert free.
Then they made a lot of money on the documentary.
I suppose they could have called the local, state or national authorities to arrest the trespassers, but would that have made good business sense? I don't think so. When the culture is changing faster than the law, it makes far better business sense to co-opt the movement than to arrest it.
Still, some people just don't get it.
I'm linking you to the Los Angeles Times story on the arrest of a local blogger for streaming Guns 'N Roses. Since I'm printing the Times article in its entirety, you may consider this a teeny tiny act of civil disobedience in the tradition of Thoreau (his Civil Disobedience here).
But listen, guys. Send the firemen instead of the FBI. They're always much better looking.
Need I say there's got to be bigger story here? Like, selective prosecution? Any criminal lawyer readers out there.
Below, the L.A. Times story. Complete.
("Yes, Officer. I did pay for the cartoon over at istockphoto.com. I've got the receipt here somewhere")
Kevin Cogill, 27, of Culver City, who admitted to allowing public access to the songs on the Antiquiet blog, was arrested today on suspicion of violating federal copyright laws.
By Scott Glover, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
A man accused of posting nine previously unreleased songs by the rock band Guns N' Roses on a website where they could be accessed by the public was arrested at his home early today on suspicion of violating federal copyright laws, authorities said.
Kevin Cogill, 27, is accused of posting the songs, which were being prepared for commercial release, on the Internet blog Antiquiet in June, according to an arrest affidavit. The site received so much traffic after the songs were posted that it crashed, the affidavit states.
Cogill admitted to posting the songs when he was questioned by an FBI agent, according to the affidavit. He was arrested at his home in Culver City this morning and is expected to appear in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles later today, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Craig Missakian.
I'll be very interested to see what the U.S. District Court Judge does with this. We have a very serious federal court bench here who do not like playing games with their extremely limited and extraordinarily valuable time.
For a genuine legal analysis see Citizen Media Law Project's coverage for which I'm providing a link and an excerpt:
Update: Cogill has in fact been charged under 17 U.S.C. § 506(a)(1)(C), which implements the copyright amendments included in the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005. I've been able to locate the criminal complaint filed against him, and it charges that he "knowingly and willfully distributed a copyrighted work being prepared for commercial distribution, namely nine previously unreleased songs by the band Guns n' Roses, by making the songs available on a computer network accessible to members of the public."
Speaking of Woodstock . . . Jimi Hendrix' Star Spangled Banner below.
