Chinese Democracy a "toe-tapper". Early Guns N' Roses guitarist Tracii Guns said he thought it was "over-indulgent, sterile and not that exciting". "Chinese Democracy"'s protracted recording process attracted extensive media coverage. According to "Spin", a cottage industry grew around covering its development; "the only way the record could have lived up to its legend would have been to never come out at all". Five years after its release, "Grantland" journalist Steven Hyden wrote: "For years, it was widely assumed "Chinese Democracy" would never come out; in retrospect, the delay is all anybody cares about ... As music, "Chinese Democracy" is merely the
Chinese Democracy anti-piracy video with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Cogill said he never made the video with the RIAA because they did not want to spend money on production costs. In 2014, Cogill said that he could not be charged for releasing copyrighted material because the court could not prove that the album was being prepared for commercial distribution: "The US government would have to prove, in court, that "Chinese Democracy" was really coming. And no one at the RIAA or the label had informed the government that these songs had been lying around for 14 years. Only that