Police Extend OiNK’s Bail Date Once Again
Written by Ernesto on February 04, 2008Three months ago, the popular private BitTorrent tracker OiNK was effectively shut down in a joint effort by Dutch and British law enforcement. Today, the bail date for OiNK admin Alan Ellis has been extended for the second time, until the 6th of May.
OiNK was considered by many to be the best BitTorrent music tracker the world has ever seen. With 180,000 members it was without a doubt one of the most popular private BitTorrent trackers. OiNK hosted hundreds and thousands of torrents and tracked over a million peers, which made it more popular than most public trackers.
Jeremy Banks, Head of the IFPI’s Internet Anti-Piracy Unit described it differently, as he said at the time: “OiNK was central to the illegal distribution of pre-release music online. This was not a case of friends sharing music for pleasure. This was a worldwide network that got hold of music they did not own the rights to and posted it online.”
Among other things, the police claimed that OiNK was a money machine, and that Alan was making hundreds of thousands of pounds. However, everyone knows that OiNK was free to use and this fact was backed up by Trent Reznor, the frontman of Nine Inch Nails: “If OiNK cost anything, I would certainly have paid, but there isn’t the equivalent of that in the retail space right now.”
The IFPI and BPI did not only misinform the police, they also hijacked the OiNK.cd domain and displayed an ominous message indicating an investigation into the site’s users had begun. These propagandistic threats were supposed to scare former OiNK members, and they succeeded in this until OiNK reclaimed the domain.
With today’s extension, the speculation about potential charges continues. At the moment it remains unclear what evidence the police are trying to find, but I assume they have figured out by now that the site is not as evil as the IFPI and BPI wanted them to believe.
To be continued.
Previously: IFPI Forces Danish ISP to Block The Pirate Bay
Next: Detailed Piracy Stats For Every Oscars Nominated Movie Since 2003
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They can’t hurt him, no matter what!
i miss oink.cd so much… :( havn’t bought any music since they closed oink! bastards!
It seems pretty clear to me that the constant lack of charges and the fact they’ve extended bail AGAIN points to the police having jack shit on the guy. They’re clutching at straws, they have nothing, he’ll walk.
Damn, I liked OiNK.
I’ve never even set foot in my town’s record stores since they shut OiNK down.
Operating a BitTorrent tracker, linking to files - Illegal.
Invading another country based on proven lies and murdering 1.000.000+ civilians - Legal.
This surely is one hell of a fucked up world…
[quote comment="281278"]I’ve never even set foot in my town’s record stores since they shut OiNK down.[/quote]
why would people think this is the right idea? do you think record stores aren’t constantly targeted just like torrent sites for selling used music?
” Operating a BitTorrent tracker, linking to files - Illegal.
Invading another country based on proven lies and murdering 1.000.000+ civilians - Legal.
This surely is one hell of a fucked up world…”
The second thing isn’t actually legal. Just difficulty to prosecute.
Free the man already. His only crime is making the world a humble place. Pre-releases were banned on Oink.
It’s sounding more like a lack of strong evidence against Mr. Ellis (aka Oinky). Or could be the fact the IFPI and BPI are still stuggling how Oink really works. Or they may be looking for the nonexisting hundreds of thousands of pounds Oinky supposedly made.
To the IFPI and BPI: Oink will be free soon and your lack of evidence will not be stong enough to prosecute Oinky. What a waste of time and money.
The record companies need to use that money to help musicians create better quality music. Then and only then will people start buying. Until then music and entertainment has all the freedom online.
Hang in there Oinky. You are not forgotten. There’s a movement slowly building and plans being developed as of this writing.
Peace and a high five to the music fans. A finger and many explict words to the anti pirates.
“hundreds AND thousands of torrents”? Which is it?
#9
pre-releases were NOT banned on OiNK. some specific pre-releases were banned at times (such as white stripes for example) do to particular pressures.
Pre-releases weren’t banned on OiNK, and I doubt he’d enjoy you calling him “Oinky”. O.o
way to go oink :)
-m3
[quote comment="281297"]“hundreds AND thousands of torrents”? Which is it?[/quote]
Both, obviously. The first presupposes the second…
[quote comment="281315"][quote comment="281297"]“hundreds AND thousands of torrents”? Which is it?[/quote]
Both, obviously. The first presupposes the second…[/quote]
or maybe it’s something to do with multicoloured, sugary cake toppings.
[quote comment="281290"]”
Operating a BitTorrent tracker, linking to files - Illegal.
Invading another country based on proven lies and murdering 1.000.000+ civilians - Legal.
This surely is one hell of a fucked up world…”
The second thing isn’t actually legal. Just difficulty to prosecute.[/quote]
How very true. Also the first thing isn’t actually illegal, but greedy corporate bastards still try to prosecute in order to keep their never ending monopolies and milk the customers for all they are worth.
haven’t bought any music since oink went down either. And this is just the start. If things go on like this I’ll make everyone I remotely know to stop buying MAFIAA music until RIAA/ifpi and the other terrorists are history.
[quote comment="281315"][quote comment="281297"]“hundreds AND thousands of torrents”? Which is it?[/quote]
Both, obviously. The first presupposes the second…[/quote]
I think the correct turn of phrase is hundreds OF thousands…
[quote comment="281337"][quote comment="281315"][quote comment="281297"]“hundreds AND thousands of torrents”? Which is it?[/quote]
Both, obviously. The first presupposes the second…[/quote]
I think the correct turn of phrase is hundreds OF thousands…[/quote]
no…its a saying in england. The second guy is correct
Unfortunately i can see him getting found guilty, uk seem a bit crap at this sort of thing…
Fuck the police&Fuck IFPI.
Oink.Oink.Oink.
[quote comment="281309"]Pre-releases weren’t banned on OiNK, and I doubt he’d enjoy you calling him “Oinky”. O.o[/quote]
Certain pre-releases were banned, but not all of them. As for Oink being called Oinky he is used to it. It was a nickname that wasn’t often used, but he didn’t have a problem with it.
meh
I used oink as a sampler - if I liked it I bought it - sorry not bought anything since they went.
Long live Oinky - I dont think the CPS have enough evidence
Lets be honest all we are seeing here is the aftermath of another “fakedown” as I will be calling such events from now on.
The media company half-wits feed the police incorrect (usually dramatic claims )intelligence and look stupid when the charges drop through the floor as they will in this case, remember shareconnector anyone?
Lets hope he sues the BBC and others who called him a pirate/theif when the case does collapse.
boicott
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