DrewWilson
March 17th, 2009, 09:23 PM
The battle to control online music has taken a particularly outrageous turn. As if private censorship, fines, intimidation and blacklisting weren't enough, now the Department of Justice — for the first time we're aware of — is threatening to throw a man in jail for noncommercial music-sharing.1
At issue is a pre-release leak of the Guns N' Roses album Chinese Democracy. In August 2008, blogger Kevin Cogill was arrested at gunpoint at his home in Los Angeles. He was charged under the 2005 Family Entertainment and Copyright Act with posting tracks from the album prior to its release date. In October, Cogill plead guilty [PDF], and last week the government asked for a six-month prison sentence.
The sentencing request [PDF] misconstrues the facts and technology in question.
At the heart of the DOJ's case is the assumption that Cogill was the original source of the album leak, and therefore bears full responsibility for every subsequent download of the album until its official release in November 2008.
In fact, it appears that leaks of the tracks in question had been available for many years before Cogill posted his copies in June 2008. As noted in Cogill's lawyer's response to the request [PDF], the band began work on the album in 1994 (!), and switched studio affiliations and band managers several times in the subsequent 15 years before its release, leaving countless opportunities for leaks. Anecdotal evidence exists of CD leaks "kicking around since 2001 or 2002."
More... (http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/03/doj-seeks-jail-time-music-sharing)
Though I'm aware that file-sharers, namely BT tracker owners who hosted their site in the US, have gotten jail sentences before, but yes, first time the DOJ asked for this AFAIK too.
At issue is a pre-release leak of the Guns N' Roses album Chinese Democracy. In August 2008, blogger Kevin Cogill was arrested at gunpoint at his home in Los Angeles. He was charged under the 2005 Family Entertainment and Copyright Act with posting tracks from the album prior to its release date. In October, Cogill plead guilty [PDF], and last week the government asked for a six-month prison sentence.
The sentencing request [PDF] misconstrues the facts and technology in question.
At the heart of the DOJ's case is the assumption that Cogill was the original source of the album leak, and therefore bears full responsibility for every subsequent download of the album until its official release in November 2008.
In fact, it appears that leaks of the tracks in question had been available for many years before Cogill posted his copies in June 2008. As noted in Cogill's lawyer's response to the request [PDF], the band began work on the album in 1994 (!), and switched studio affiliations and band managers several times in the subsequent 15 years before its release, leaving countless opportunities for leaks. Anecdotal evidence exists of CD leaks "kicking around since 2001 or 2002."
More... (http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/03/doj-seeks-jail-time-music-sharing)
Though I'm aware that file-sharers, namely BT tracker owners who hosted their site in the US, have gotten jail sentences before, but yes, first time the DOJ asked for this AFAIK too.