On August 26th, 27-year-old Kevin Cogill was arrested on suspicion of violating federal copyright laws. FBI agents say Coghill had nine unreleased Guns N’ Roses songs on his site in June.
The blogger allegedly had been streaming songs from the still unreleased new Guns N’ Roses album “Chinese Democracy” on his site for some time.
In November, Coghill pleaded guilty to one federal count of copyright infringement, a charge that carries up to one year in prison and a large fine. Federal prosecutors today have said they are pushing for a six month sentence for Coghill based on the “calculation of damages based on the illegal activity of as many as 1,310 websites that disseminated the music after Cogill released it.”
The government has said the damages amount to $371,622 USD, basing each infringement on iTune’s 99 cents per track cost. The RIAA, always one to create phantom numbers, believes the infringement amounts to a “$2.2 million loss based on a $6.39 legitimate wholesale value.” These numbers of course imply that every person who downloaded the tracks would have purchased them legally had they not been available illegally, which we all know is not true at all. The government’s almost 400,000 “conservative figure” was based on the following:
“This number is based on a sample of 30 out of 1,310 unauthorized web sites that offered the leaked songs to the public between June 19, 2008 and November 21, 2008. Of the 1,310 web sites identified as having unauthorized copies of the music that defendant streamed, 30 of those contained information showing the number of downloads from their sites. It is most likely that this number represents the number of downloads of the group of 9 leaked songs, for a total of 152,784 downloads of individual songs (16,976 x 9), tt is, however, not possible to say at this time whether the figure represents the group of 9 songs or individual songs. Giving the defendant the benefit of the doubt, the government will assume that the 16,976 figure represents downloads of individual songs.”
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Result for: guns
At its annual retail and publisher conference Sony America has announced that new PlayStation 3 and PSP bundles will be hitting retailers beginning in April.
They company also announced that the wireless DualShock 3 controller will finally be available in North America starting in April for the MSRP of $55 USD.
The first new bundle will include the 80GB model, a DS3 controller and “Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots” for $499 USD.
In June the company will be releasing a special limited-edition PSP bundle that will include “a copy of the God of War: Chains of Olympus PSP game and a “deep red” coloured PSP handheld with a silk-screened image of Kratos on the back of the unit. The Pack will also include a UMD of the movie Superbad as well as a PSN voucher to download Syphon Filter: Combat Ops.” The suggested retail price is $200 USD.
“Working closely with our retail and publishing partners and sharing our hardware and software roadmaps at Destination PlayStation gives us a great opportunity to outline some key milestones for the year,” said SCEA CEO Jack Tretton.
“In response to incredible demand, we will be manufacturing more 80GB PS3s for North America and the Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots 80GB PS3 bundle is an ideal way to offer that continued value to our consumers.
“With Blu-ray having won the format war, our stellar software line-up and a broad product portfolio, we will continue to drive the incredible momentum we’ve been generating since last fall,” he added.
Result for: guns
On August 26th, 27-year-old Kevin Cogill was arrested on suspicion of violating federal copyright laws. FBI agents say Coghill had nine unreleased Guns N’ Roses songs on his site in June.
The blogger allegedly had been streaming songs from the still unreleased new Guns N’ Roses album “Chinese Democracy” on his site for some time.
Despite saying he would plead not guilty last month, it appears Cogill has changed his mind and will now plead guilty to one federal count of copyright infringement. Because the case was being treated as a misdemeanor and not a felony, Cogill faced up to one year in prison as well as a fine.
Due to his clean criminal record and the plea bargain, Cogill will likely face only 1 month of jail time. More importantly will be whether Cogill will be forced to reveal the source of the nine tracks he uploaded.
