Chinese Democracy second-worst GNR record; as a figure of speech, it is shorthand for the grandest of boondoggles." Hyden wrote that the album had served as a lesson for acts who took years to release "comeback" albums, demonstrating the perils of allowing backstory to overshadow the work and failing to provide a familiar product. He compared "Chinese Democracy" to subsequent, successful comeback albums by acts including Daft Punk, David Bowie, Justin Timberlake and My Bloody Valentine, which were "more modest" and offered "well-trod musical territory associated with each artist". "Far Out" saw the album as anachronistic; where Rose had once commanded "loyal
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