Kevin Cogill, the blogger who was arrested at gunpoint and admitted to leaking a large part of the latest (and long awaited) Guns N' Roses album "Chinese Democracy", has been sentenced to a year of probation and two months of home confinement. Cogill will also have to record a 'public service announcement' for the Recording Industry Association of America, explaining the evils of music piracy and how illegal downloading and fileswapping hurts band. Cogill will also have to allow authorities to search or seize his computers. Cogill had leaked and posted nine tracks from the fourteen track album online in June 2008 last year - onto his own site (http://www.antiquiet.com/). In court he apologised saying "I never intended to hurt the artist" adding "I intended to promote the artist because I'm a fan". The court has been pressed by the federal prosecutor for a short prison term as a deterrent to others although prosecutors did acknowledge that this might turn the defendant into something of a martyr. In his defence Cogill's attorney argued that his client had acknowledged his wrongdoing and had lost his job as a result of the case. Cogill will not have to pay any fines or restitution, although authorities at one point calculated the losses from his actions at more than $371,000. The album, 17 years in the making, reached number 3 in the US charts when it was released in November 2008.
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