Musik Indonesia

Kevin Cogill, the blogger who was arrested by the FBI last week for leaking nine unreleased Guns n’ Roses tracks, has broken his silence on his Website. In a new post, Cogill reveals that he has retained the services of attorney David J.P. Kaloyanides, who works with “many indigent clients who cannot afford to hire their own lawyer,” according to his Website. Cogill has set up a Paypal account on his site to raise funds for his defense. He also plans on auctioning his Gibson Les Paul BFG guitar. “[Battling these charges] has definitely been by far the biggest expense I have ever faced in my entire life,” he writes. “My resources are very limited while formidable costs shall continue to pile up. It’s beyond daunting, being a single independent citizen facing a full-force prosecution by the most powerful government in the world.” If convicted Cogill faces a possible five-year prison sentence and a $250,000 fine. A preliminary hearing is booked for September 17th.

Speaking to Rolling Stone in June, Cogill seemed unaware of the recent law that explicitly outlawed the distribution of unreleased music. “I’m not worried [about possible legal action],” he said. “I have a few friends in the music industry, pretty high up on the inside. The consensus seems to be that they probably aren’t going to prosecute, it’s pretty bad PR. It’s a grey area in a lot of senses since it wasn’t for download and it wasn’t a finished product. We aren’t even sure who owns the recordings. Everything I know about these situations doesn’t apply to this particular case. I’m not ruling anything out, but I feel like I might survive this. I don’t know.”

He also explained his rationale for posting the music to begin with. “I set out to prove the point that this shit will always get out there, no matter how tight a lid they put on it. Me just saying I had these songs wouldn’t be enough. If I said, ‘Hey, we heard Chinese Democracy — it’s great.’ Nobody would fucking buy that. How many sites have said that? I had to have someone say, ‘No, they fucking have it. They posted it.’ “