Blogger Kevin Cogill

A federal judge sentenced Kevin Cogill, a blogger, to a year of probation after leaking a significant portion of “Chinese Democracy,” Guns N’ Roses’ latest album last August.

Cogill, who ran a prominent music blog called Antiquiet, will also serve two months of home confinement and will have to turn his computers in for governmental research. The Recording Industry Association of America (the RIAA) will also be getting a new public service announcement recorded by Mr. Cogill, expressing the damage caused by illegal filesharing.

Cogill pleaded guilty early this year to a misdemeanor count of copyright infringement. He had posted over half of “Chinese Democracy” last year and things started going downhill for him then. One federal prosecutor on the case had pushed for jail time, but U.S. judge Paul Abrams said he felt that Cogill had learned from his mistakes.

It’s all slightly overblown to me. He may have leaked the tracks, but the album couldn’t have ever lived up to the 15 year hype-fest it had leading up to it’s release. He has avoided jail time but now comes the real fun for Cogill — it’s a near guarantee that Axl Rose and or Geffen Records will go on to sue him for a monetary value, and Cogill will be hard pressed to find a way out of paying them.