Guns And Bloggers

You hear for years they obscure the truth and you believe it. Chompski says it, points it out, and you believe it. You can’t see it in the headlines but you have a general sense of a separation between yourself and the truth by a layer of newsprint. You turn away from the headlines, opt for ignorance over skewed perception. Then, you see a black, white, and read all over, spread out on the table at work. You skim print and read the words blogger, arrested, and FBI.

“When five FBI agents arrested Kevin Cogill at his Culver City apartment, it marked the newest weapon in the entertainment industry’s war on piracy: felony charges against small-time bootleggers.” Blogger Kevin Cogill charged with felony in leak of Guns N’ Roses songs

Michelle Quinn and Swati Pandey give a brief summary of the reasons behind the arrest, while they hint at the truth. To read their words, they quote many people who say negative words on internet piracy. While the article never out right calls Kevin Cogill’s, aka Skwerl of Antiquiet.com, a internet pirate or individual bootleggers. They do a good job of steering the reader to the assumption.

Their hint at the truth is, Cogill got his hands on 9 tracks off “Chinese Democracy”, the long awaited Guns ‘n’ Roses album and streamed the tracks for readers of his blog. Yet, why did the F.B.I raid his Culver City home? The F.B.I. did have prior contact with Cogill in a meeting he noted as civil. Why had the men in white letters returned to kick the door down? Michelle Quinn and Swati Pandey leave the reasons out.

The truth is Skwerl is a long time fan of Guns and Roses. A quick look around Antiqiet.com will assure you of that. He further regales his feelings on the album of his accusations with “Crying Chinese Democracy” . The post is the seed from which spills the whole mess.

An avid fan of GnR, he kept up to date and knew “Chinese Democracy” was complete; handed from Axe Rose to Geffen, back in April. Time moved on and no word of a release date had surfaced. Reports stated “Chinese Democracy” release was held up by promotion. Cogill, out of fear the album would be leaked to the internet and hurt future sales of an album that cost over 30 million dollars to produce, he streamed 9 songs from a post on Antiquiet.com, or as I shall call it “The blog read round the Musical world.”

To understand Cogill’s reasons, one must understand the myth of “Chinese Democracy”, the constantly soon to be released album from GnR. 13 years have past in the development behind its colossal history. Apocalypse Now and the White Album put together have the right mix for “Chinese Democracy” lore, which includes stories of absorbent equipment rental fees, wild inactivity, and enlarged egos. Many fans feared the release would never come, until news the project was finished reached the fan base. There was much rejoice, and nothing.

“I hope he rots in jail,” said Slash, a self admitted kleptomaniac *. “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.”

According to Ernesto at Torrentfreak.com, Slash might be right about the pirated early release of the 9 songs. An better case to pursue would be, if Antiquiet.com had released the songs as a download. However, the songs were streamed and offered no easy way to get the tracks onto a computer. Cogill will be the scapegoat for any future leaked copies to make it onto the internet and Antiquiet.com did break copy write laws. But one has to wonder if a fully informed Slash would have the same zeal to let Cogill rot or think Skwerl deserved the morning raid on his home over an FCC jurisdiction issue.

Why did the F.B.I raid Cogill’s Culver City home? The answer is quite simple and marks a subtext against the newspapers better interest. There are many bonuses to a morning raid in a residential area. I am hard pressed think there is any shame with intrusion of the current authorities, letter men who are not above wheelchair arrest in public approved dispensaries. However, there are some Americans who may find shame at the spectacle. 7:00 am marks the best time to display such a spectacle. There is no better time to send a message to neighborhood than the early morning hour. Hunter S. Thompson might disagree as he was fond of 3 am phone calls, but most of Americas are on their doorsteps at 7 or watching the morning news.

“Sorry, I was late. The F.B.I were arresting some blogger for pirating music.” is the word of mouth campaign The MAN wants etched into water cooler talk. Proved further by the article in the newspaper, a short 2 hours later. They even used the same photo, Wired used for an article on the subject when Cogill was contacted the first civil time.

There are many layers to this story and Cogill has opened a Pandora’s box that has the possibility to eat him alive. While his road is paved with good intentions, the light at the end of the tunnel flickers with flames. He has woken the interest of a big, stupid, ignorant bully on a playground he dosen’t belong to. Bloggers are the cannon fodder for the machine and the outlook is grim. He stands to suffer a heroes fate, as the corporation gets rich off the free press. Cogill’s best hope is Chinese Democracy is actualy finished and will be released to major sucess. He has set himself up to be the fall guy for any out come, and with 30 million dollars on the line, the lawers wil get it any way they can. On September 17th, they will try to turn Skwerl into a poster boy for a crime he did not commit and we can only hope this is an inside publicity stunt and not the grim reality in the looking glass.