"Chinese Democracy" Leaker Changes Plea to Guilty

The blogger who leaked nine songs from Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy has agreed to change his plea to guilty in a deal that will reduce the charges against him to a single federal count of copyright infringement, a Los Angeles prosecutor said. Under the deal, Kevin Cogill, the writer for the website Antiquiet who leaked the tracks back in June, will only face a maximum of one year in prison. Whether or not Cogill must reveal his source for the leaks as part of the deal has not been revealed. The plea bargain will bring to an end a tumultuous six months for Cogill. Following a visit from the FBI, Cogill told Rock Daily "If legal proceedings come my way, I'll face them 100 percent." "I'm not afraid of that. I did what I did, and I'll face the music if I have to." Chinese Democracy will finally be released in its finished form on November 23rd.

Related Stories:
• Chinese Democracy Leaker Pleads Not Guilty to Piracy
• Did Guns n' Roses Leaker Know He Broke the Law? Kevin Cogill Asks for Financial Aid
• Chinese Democracy Leaker Arrested on Suspicion of Violating Federal Copyright Law

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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