OiNK Database Didn’t ‘Self Destruct’, Wasn’t Encrypted But Users Safe?
Written by enigmax on October 25, 2007Following the raid at OiNK, many of the 180,000 members are very concerned about what’s happening with their details. The rumor: The OiNK database was encrypted and self-destructed. The truth: It wasn’t and it didn’t but ex-users still might be safe. In the meantime, OiNK got fired from his job.
Yesterday, in the wake of the OiNK takedown, we made a report about possible action against Norwegian BitTorrent trackers. In it we revealed that a tipoff suggested that the OiNK database had been equipped with a ’self-destruct’ mechanism and was also encrypted.
‘OiNK’ himself participated in a short Q&A and the truth is that this is not the case. Here is a rundown of the salient points:
The raid was completely unexpected and came with no warning at all but steps had already been taken to protect the users. Although there was no ’self-destruct’ or encryption according to OiNK, “the logs we store aren’t enough to incriminate users.” This will come as a huge relief to ex-members of OiNK.
A Cleveland Police spokesman told The Telegraph: “It is too early to tell if we will go after individuals, it all depends on what we find.”
OiNK is accused of conspiracy to defraud and copyright infringements with police questioning OiNK for hours after which he was eventually released. It became apparent that the police had limited technical knowledge which, according to OiNK “made the interview quite amusing.”
OiNK’s father - who was also dragged into this, is fine - although the police took his laptop.
There was an implication that a backup of the site may exist, although this is unconfirmed and there is no news yet that the forums will be restored for the purposes of music discussion. Additionally, it’s unclear if OiNK remains the owner of the OiNK.CD domain.
Sites have been cropping up claiming to collect donations for legal defense but according to OiNK there aren’t any that potential donators should feel comfortable donating to right now.
Certain changes had been made to the OiNK site and IRC channel in recent weeks security-wise and there was a suggestion that this may have been because a raid was expected. OiNK has denied this and confirmed these changes were a coincidence.
In echoes of what happened to Alexander Hanff (admin of the BitTorrent tracker DVDR-Core) Alan Ellis aka OiNK has been fired from his IT Consultant job following the raid but has refused to elaborate on what grounds his employer - Virgin Media in Stockton-on-Tees - chose to dismiss him.
It’s hugely commendable that OiNK has taken the time to come out and give the community timely facts. Alan told The Daily Telegraph: “I haven’t done anything wrong. I don’t believe my website breaks the law. They don’t understand how it works.”
Stay Tuned
Update: Seems like someone involved in the takedown left an administrative message on the OiNK site (thanks for the tips DaanRiver and R10T):
Previously: University Raids Graduate Student Office for Using BitTorrent
Next: The Pirate Bay To Bring Back OiNK
172 Responses
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Police: ‘We have this HDD it will prove you guilty then you and your users will have a real problem!!!’
OiNK: ‘Sir, this is a CPU :o ‘
[quote comment="195566"][quote comment="195544"]from irc chat with OiNK:
[quote]
smartface> did they actually question you?
OiNK> of course, for hours
OiNK> the police had very limited technical knowledge, which made the interview quite amusing actually.
OiNK> i wasn’t willing to teach them how to use a computer
OiNK> they actually wanted me to teach them how to set up a website
OiNK> i just told them to google it.
[/quote][/quote]
HAHA hilarious :D[/quote]
Erm, this is a common interrogation trick. Interrogator plays dumb, interrogant becomes cocky, starts talking more freely, tries to tout his prowess. Do you really think they really wanted to know how to set up a website from this guy? It was a roundabout way of questioning designed to look innocuous. (Maybe they were trying to figure out what resources he used to setup Oink or an admission that he did set up Oink).
Never answer questions without a lawyer.
lol at tbh’s comment
[quote comment="195592"]If your looking for alternatives to Oink, try;
http://blog.buttermouth.com/2006/10/undiscovered-ways-to-get-free-music.html/quote
Yeah, but thats for listening, I want it for my own, and I don’t want to pay.
http://www.cafepress.com/neverforgetoink
Fuck the Police.
uh-oh:
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2202030/uk-government-plans-file
http://www.collegehumor.com/picture:1782607
Ouch!
[quote comment="195583"]The key things that would leave users in trouble are:
logging IP addresses
logging torrents downloaded
logging torrents uploaded
As far as I remember, oink did all three of those. They have to log IPs so they can ban cheaters, right? And I’m pretty sure I saw the IP address I was using (my neighbor’s wireless) in my profile (with an “only visible to you” notice, but still recorded in there.)
They also had a list of torrents you snatched, as well as what you uploaded.[/quote]
Actually, just because it displays the IP you are logged in from doesn’t indicate it’s being stored. In fact, Paine himself indicated that they didn’t log IPs for snatches in his blog. (http://tehpaine.blogspot.com/) Check the quote below.
[quote=Paine]A few people have asked me if we logged the IP you snatched things from. The answer is no, we did not log snatch IPs.[/quote]
So, yeah.
but folks who just snatched didnt stay around due to ratio bans. anyone carrying a acceptable ratio surely got logged no?
yes, of course. How else could it work?
i just don’t understand how oink and the other mods are claiming that their servers didn’t hold enough info to incriminate users.
[quote comment="195643"]uh-oh:
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2202030/uk-government-plans-file/quote
actually, I support chasing those who gain profits from selling pirated stuff
but sharing music for free (like it was on oink) is ok for me
He is totally right, he made a website that allows to search music (like Google) and if you want to download you can. He doesn`t force you to download and if you download you get the files from other users not from him. Basically he made a free searching website that can use everybody who has an invite.
The law sucks, I don`t know what they assume, nobody will buy as many albums as they download it, a lot of musician say that it is good to download music because a lot more people will know new bands, go their concerts etc.. and maybe they don`t buy their records because it`s so freaking expensive \ and the music companies (labels) get the most of the album`s prize, so this sucks too.
There is no solotion… but this website was totally legal and amyba the members were breaking the law but not the founder.
The police are stupid… we didn`t have to pay anything and didn`t have to upload pre-release stuff, they should check what they investigating….
misses oink,
our torrent world collapsed,
where is the good old music now,
with all those music lovers,
please say, “Here I am”
;-)
http://www.scenemusic.eu
by sceners.. for sceners
all this paranoia just before Halloween oooohhhhhh…LOLOLOLOL i loved OiNK but ive not laughed so hard at so many roaches running from the light in my life. don’t download and keep things you never plan on paying for if your THAT worried. its simple as that. Every time you see a police man in your neighborhood your going to have ulcers worrying if they are coming for you!!!
[quote]OiNK has been fired from his IT Consultant job following the raid but has refused to elaborate on what grounds his employer - Virgin Media in Stockton-on-Tees - chose to dismiss him.[/quote]
F*ck Virgin Media & Richard Branson corporate cocksucker
Is there any hope that in the future OINK will be back under another name and it will recognized the old users?
My life is shattered now. I’ll miss OINK dearly. It was so nice to get everything you wanted so fast.
Oh man, I feel someone took my ice cream! :-(
not only took my ice cream, also took my wine, my food, my pleasure
;-
Yej kinda sucks that they are down..like yu said they will return…
http://galacticcentral.org/
Can they really go after everyone?
Or think they’ll just go after Power Users?
PLEASE EVERYONE ERAD THE BLOG IT ANSWERS ALL YOUR QUESTIONS
http://tehpaine.blogspot.com/
Well, think about it.. for the most part.. what did OiNK have?
It wasn’t a gold mine of RIAA music downloaders or anything like that.
Most of the music was either on extremely obscure limbs of the Big Four or not part of it at all.
If they do try and press charges against users, I hope they have fun trying to sort through the masses of what they can sue on and what they can’t.
With OiNK, every day was like Christmas, which makes Mr. OiNK something like a pink digital Santa Claus.
Give ‘em the good fight, Mr. OiNK!
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