Intellectual Property Law

Kevin Cogill, the California man criminally charged on allegations of unlawfully uploading pre-released Guns N' Roses songs, is seeking financial assistance to pay his legal fees.

Arrested last month, the FBI said (.pdf) the 27-year-old man confessed to uploading nine songs on June 18 to his music site antiquiet. A day after the uploading, according to the FBI, an investigator with the Recording Industry Association of America alerted the FBI.

Financial assistance can be made here.

"I am trying to take full responsibility for my predicament. I consider the burden of legal fees ultimately mine to bear; I have independently raised the funds required to retain my attorney. However, it has definitely been by far the biggest expense I have ever faced in my entire life, and 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," Cogill wrote on his web site.

Cogill is charged with one count of violating Title 17, United States Code Section, 506 (a) (1) (C). The copyright infringement charge is related pre-released material, "distribution of a work being prepared for commercial distribution by making it available on a computer network accessible to members of the public."

The charge is a "felony punishable by imprisonment for not more than three years or, if the offense was committed for commercial advantage or private financial gain, for not more than five years."

The Los Angeles man remains free on $10,000 bond following last month's arrest.

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