Pitchfork

Last week, as you may recall, the blog Antiquiet posted nine tracks they claimed were "mastered, finished versions" of tunes from Guns N' Roses' long-promised Chinese Democracy LP. The news (and tracks) spread around the internet all quicklike, and it wasn't long before Antiquiet head Kevin Skwerl got a call from a representative of the band asking if he could maybe knock it off.

"It was a really cool guy from the Gn'R camp that was a middle man between someone who was very angry and me," Skwerl told RollingStone.com's Rock & Roll Daily blog. "He was trying to reach out and see if I'd go without a fight, which is more or less what I did." Still, the tracks were out there, and by all accounts (and Skwerl's own admission), Antiquiet was the original source. And so, on Monday (June 23), a pair of agents from the FBI paid Skwerl a visit [via Idolator].

After returning from lunch, Skwerl was greeted by the FBI agents, with whom he chatted briefly and made plans for a follow-up meeting. The agents were seeking out the original files, which Skwerl had erased on the urging of Axl's lawyers. "I wasn't sure if they were going to come by with a warrant and trash the place, like in the movies," Skwerl told Rock & Roll Daily. But, thankfully, "it was nothing like that." Skwerl instead pointed the agents in the direction of the songs that are now all over the net.

Skwerl was originally quoted on Rock & Roll Daily as claiming "[streaming the leaked songs] is a legal gray area since it wasn't for download, it wasn't a finished product. We aren't sure who owns the recordings. I feel like I might survive this." He later wrote in to Idolator (and Rock & Roll Daily) to clarify his position, stating, "I said it 'may' be a legal gray area, not that it is. I admit that I don't know the law thoroughly, and have ruled nothing out at this point." No word yet on how that follow-up meeting went, but hey, if Axl's pissed enough to sic the Feds on people, this Skwerl fella must be onto something. Right?