The FBI has arrested a man for posting copyrighted songs on his website.
Exemplifying the federal government’s stepped-up efforts to combat copyright violations, the FBI arrested 27-year-old Kevin Cogill yesterday for posting nine tracks from the upcoming Guns ‘n’ Roses album, Chinese Democracy, on his blog, according to Reuters.
An FBI agent was reported as saying Cogill admitted posting the tracks. He then removed them from his site, but by that time the songs had begun to circulate widely, an FBI spokesperson said.
Cogill was released on bail. He faces a maximum sentence of three years if found guilty, and five years if it is determined that he profited financially from the act.
This is a vivid example of the increasing seriousness with with federal authorities are pursuing copyright violators.
Anne Hathaway finally got smart.
The “Devil Wears Prada” star has ditched her Italian rapscallion boyfriend after four years of suffering through his innumerable brushes with scandal and bad publicity, it was reported yesterday.
Hathaway finally decided to part ways with shady real-estate peddler Raffaello Follieri because of the effect his business dealings could have on her blooming career, the Daily Mail of London reported.
“It’s heartbreaking for her to dump him, and she’s devastated that it’s come to this, but she really didn’t have a choice. His scandals were hurting her reputation,” the paper quoted an unnamed source close to Hathaway, who stars in “Get Smart,” which opens Friday.
A source familiar with the situation told The Post, “Her dad has hired PIs and has been after her for a while to do it.”
Hathaway’s spokesman declined to comment on the report. Follieri was in Italy yesterday and could not be reached for comment. His spokeswoman did not return calls.
The split comes a little more than a week after The Post revealed that state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo was investigating Follieri’s charitable foundation.
Hathaway had, until recently, sat on its board of directors.
The 29-year-old shyster was also arrested in April for allegedly kiting a $215,000 check to a New Jersey real-estate magnate. The charges were later dropped after Follieri made good on the rubber check.
He has also been sued by California supermarket mogul Ron Burkle in Delaware courts over a multimillion-dollar joint real-estate venture that went sour.
Burkle accused Follieri in a civil suit of misusing some $55 million from the venture, in which they planned to make money buying and reselling properties owned by the Catholic Church.
The money allegedly funded a lavish jet-set lifestyle that helped catch the eye of Hathaway. They started dating in 2005.
Follieri also recently battled in a Washington, DC, court with a PR firm that represented him during the Burkle entanglement.
He was ordered to pay nearly $240,000 to the Carmen Group after he was found in default last December.
He was also sued by a New Jersey private-jet service that claims Follieri’s joint venture with Burkle – Follieri Yucaipa Investments LLC – failed to pay $458,852 in chartering costs for nine flights between September 2007 and January 2008.
Joe, you’re absolutely right; these warnings are insulting and do not have to be all over our CDs and DVDs. What I find even more annoying is that in watching a DVD the viewer has to sit through several warnings from various law enforcement organizations warning us that it’s illegal to make copies of the film. You can’t jump past them; you just have to sit through the bloody things every time.
I sympathize with people wanting to protect their intellectual property, but these multiple warnings are entirely unnecessary and just waste the viewer’s time. Pirates know what they’re doing, and the rest of us don’t need the constant reminder that the content providers think of all their customers as potential criminals.
S.T., on a related note, one of my pet peeves is seeing the FBI anti-piracy warning labels on recent CDs & DVDs which seemingly take up a substantial portion of the artwork. I feel somewhat insulted as I paid for these items & I have no intention of pirating them. I don’t need to have these labels in my face. Do these things have to be on CDs & DVDs?