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
146 Responses
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[quote] Unfortunately i can see him getting found guilty, uk seem a bit crap at this sort of thing…[/quote]
Too true m8. Not far of the United States of Red Square.
Can they legally hijack the domain like that? Even if they do consider it a piece of property in the investigation, do they have a right to change the nameservers it points to?
Can he sue for false imprisonment if they don’t bring forth any charges?
He isn’t imprisoned.
OINK was the best.
So if cd- and record sales dropped dramatically sinds 23-10-07 …
… blames yourself, stupid industrycunts.
OINK was by far the best promoting site for music.
[quote comment="281281"]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]
Dude, I shouldn’t even bother responding to you, but that 1 million plus civilian casualties thing is pure, unmitigated bullshit and has been debunked more times than you’ve had hot meals.
OiNK was horrid.
the uppity mods and admins had no right to be as arrogant as they were; all they did was run a site that ripped off the scene.
anything you could get there you could get from any good ftp topsite.
No way dude, you are an idiot.
There were sooo many albums on oink that no scene group had ever released and you certainly couldn’t find on a good topsite. Plus, it’s not very easy to get topsite axx.
epic fail.
OiNK is dead. Long live OiNK! via the Hydra & its offspring: what.cd & wafles.fm
Sporkula, dude that 1 million+ causalities is far from “bullshit” and most certainly has not be “debunked”. See, for instance, http://crookedtimber.org/2008/01/11/mea-culpa-mea-maxima-ahhhstickitupyerjacksie/
and
http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2008/01/orb_revises_estimate_of_iraqi.php
Never Forget & Help Support The Cause!
http://www.cafepress.com/neverforgetoink
Thanks - Becky
Just wanted to give a shout-out to Skamaria — you were consistently sharing some of the best stuff. Peace.
Wasn’t the guy’s first name Anton?
Anyway, “Bail Date” that’s when he’s supposed to appear before the court, yes? Who requested the extension, Ellis or the prosecutor?
Tags: bears, beets, battlestar galactica
is there any hope Oink will ever come back and recognize old users?
I have not found a better place yet. I miss Oink dearly.
OiNK is not gonna come back short of Allan being completely exonerated of all charges, and a ruling saying that OiNK did nothing illegal at all…however the likely outcome of this will be the Govt. finding the site to be illegal and punishment will be the shutdown….
Of course Allan will likely end up with a fine, but I doubt it will be terribly bad. I don’t know anything about law, but these are my speculations.
I would like to point out that the IFPI/BPI/RIAA/MPA all act in the same capacity to intimidate people as much as possible, using scare tactics and corrupt lobbying practices to try to make the world over in their image.
OiNK is one example of these scare tactics being used in a way that creates a void in the music industry. I’m really pretty well of the opinion that when the dust settles, all that will remain is a dead industry and a few independent artists willing to share their own media.
And, to quote the esteemed Mr. Reznor: “Head like a hole, black as your soul, I’d rather die than give you control.”
Keep the support up, OiNKers! This battle’s not over yet!
” 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.”
What’s the difference?
[quote comment="281341"]
Unfortunately i can see him getting found guilty, uk seem a bit crap at this sort of thing…[/quote]
He isn’t even charged with anything yet so at least he cannot be found guilty until he is charged.
Oink needs to file a complaint with the Independent Police Complaints Commission (http://www.ipcc.gov.uk/). If they are going to charge him they should do so soon, otherwise leave him alone. He needs a good lawyer to turn the tables on the police. He many even be able to sue them for wrongful arrest.
I miss oink. Like others, I didn’t purchase music until previewed on oink. And I found a lot of new sh1t to buy that wasn’t available locally. Since the ‘fakedown’…love this term BTW…I haven’t purchased anything. But I’ve also stopped dl music. I’m done with it. I’m only going to local gigs now to truly support the artits. A big fu to the music industry for your bs practices (both before the internet and now).
[quote comment="281323"][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]
Yum! =]
They’ve obviously extended it because they know they have no evidence. If they have any records of uers whatsoever they may go after them as a last resort.
It’s safe to say that Allan may get off from this, yet OiNK being as big as it was a judge may want to make an example of him.
It’s sad how this world works isn’t it? Everyday someone is killed, raped or robbed and yet the police are wasting their time. Shouldn’t the police be working on cases people care about?
Since when did bittorrent take priority over real crimes?
- Dwayne Charrington.
http://www.dwaynecharrington.com
[quote comment="281499"]OiNK was horrid.
the uppity mods and admins had no right to be as arrogant as they were; all they did was run a site that ripped off the scene.
anything you could get there you could get from any good ftp topsite.[/quote]
Not true at all my friend, I found stuff on there that I’d been looking for for months, and they had great quality ones of it.
[quote comment="281341"][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…[/quote]
Too true! The police & law courts are no longer the arbiters of justice (& haven’t been for a _long_ time…)
All they do now is ensure the corrupt rich maintain their filthy lucre with an iron stranglehold on the status quo.
OiNK - squeeling like a stuffed pig
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