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Photo by George Chin

Well, damn. Just when you thought it was safe to leak a bunch of nearly-finished tracks from Guns N' Roses' forever-forthcoming punchline Chinese Democracy on your blog, along comes the FBI to bust your sorry ass.

At least, that's how it went for Antiquiet blogger Kevin "Skwerl" Cogill, who was placed under arrest this morning (August 27) by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to Los Angeles Times and Associated Press reports. He was hauled in on suspicion of violating federal copyright laws.

Skwerl, as you may recall, posted nine rather polished-sounding purported Chinese Democracy tracks to Antiquiet back in June. He was actually visited by the FBI a few days after leaking the tracks (which were removed shortly after going up) and he admitted to the act, so it's not entirely clear what inspired the Feds to spring on poor Skwerl today. Years of watching crime movies, however, have taught me that they were probably "building a case" against him or something.

One of Skwerl's fellow Antiquiet bloggers acknowledged the arrest in a posting on the website today, which reads as follows:

Skwerl got himself hauled in by the FBI today over this whole GNR/Chinese Democracy leak fiasco, which seems to mean that people take this whole copyright thing pretty seriously. We weren't going to make a big spectacle of this, since it’s obviously a pretty serious situation, but the plankton hacks over at the Los Angeles Times managed to pick up on the story and run it a highly suspicious impressive two hours after the incident went down. So here we are.

In all likelihood, he'll be back fighting the good fight from his couch by this evening. But if you feel like getting as equally theatrical as the feds (who were anything but quiet and graceful during their ass-crack-of-dawn descent on Skwerl's sleepy house) can come show their support with Britney and I at the LA District Court on 255 E. Temple.

In the meantime, well-wishes in the comments, lawyer-fund donations in the p.o. box, and on we rock.

No word yet how all this affects the Dr. Pepper-thirsty citizens of America.