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
Pages: « 1 2 3 [4] 5 6 7 » Show All
Is it just me, or does it seem that this whole thing is being done very unprofessional?
All I’ve have seen are lies and distorted facts release by the parties involved with this action.
I think rads and shutdowns are going to be increasing in the follow year in an attempt to scare the sites down, but all they can do is (try to) scare us. Well at least now I have a topic for my term paper…
Sock it to ‘em OiNK!
@ post 73, are you very mistaken. There’s not a lot you couldn’t find on OiNK. Was a great resource for software, and documents too.
Yeah, i’m aware of what was on oink, but the general populace of the coined audiophiles and “elite” generally earned their bandwidth off releases and whatnot from independently done albums and even open source programs.
This isn’t to say people used it for that stuff as well because there was a hefty program collection as well.
But for the most part, programs are usually deterred from being even cared about in cases like this i’d assume because its the music industry that is always involved in raids and cases.
I still agree that its most likely a scare tactic as there’s not much they’re going to find in regards to infringement on the property they’re looking for in question.
“These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.”
=P
at #75, hah i think you’re right, i might use this for a research paper or the likes when the time comes around. =D
I am extremely curious to know EXACTLY what was in those logs, but I have a feeling oink isnt allowed to talk about it and I doubt the euro authorities will share.
I dont care if its only 10 gajillion cute pictures, I dont want the RIAA to have it.
Oink.me.uk / Oink.cd
Oinks Pink Palace
Memorial Gear:
http://www.cafepress.com/neverforgetoink
can I ask about email address that you supply to sites such as oink.
I would imagine this would be saved also would it not?
A small point but I would hate to think the police have my email address
blackhats will always win.
[quote comment="195814"]can I ask about the email address that you supply to sites such as oink.
A small point but I would hate to think the police have my email address[/quote]
I agree all our emails are at the oink somewhere. I hope they were destroyed as well
i was stupid enough to use a gmail account using my real name, I’m feeling really stupid and would probably make someone’s job really easy to prosecute me.
But I’m hating all the attention this has brought to the community, also I don’t like the fact the ‘authorities’ haven’t giving a clear message to their course of action.
apart from raiding the admin’s home and post that really badly designed page on the site
[quote comment="195827"]i was stupid enough to use a gmail account using my real name, I’m feeling really stupid and would probably make someone’s job really easy to prosecute me.
But I’m hating all the attention this has brought to the community, also I don’t like the fact the ‘authorities’ haven’t giving a clear message to their course of action, apart from raiding the admin’s home and posting that really badly designed page on the site[/quote]
You crumbums! Just say that “Oink users should be scared that they will get sued” ..because right now the anti-piracy organizations aren’t looking to actually sue anyone, they just want people to get the impression that they shouldn’t pirate because they risk being sued. So let them use their scare tactics in this way.
BUT INSTEAD you’re telling people to not be scared and this will really anger the anti-piracy organizations because they’ll feel as if people aren’t affected by the takedown of Oink and then they’ll probably actually create examples of out of those people. That’s just how scared and paranoid the industry has become..
What the fuck is Oink?
Its a site full of cute piggys and bunnies and girly things
Pedro Pete is everywhere it seems
I love it how people portray Oink as a legal music sharing site.
[quote comment="195687"]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….[/quote]
Of course more people would download than buy it because it’s FREE you idiot!
Don’t even think about cross-referencing Oink to that of a search engine. A search engine contains information that pertains only to what you search. In fact, it catalogs everything it can get its hands on but Oink clearly provide links to get illegal materials only. Get a life!
[quote]Don’t even think about cross-referencing Oink to that of a search engine. A search engine contains information that pertains only to what you search.[/quote]
So a sites legality is based on how accurate the search results are? That’s the oddest thing I’ve heard in… Quite a while.
Well, this is enough for me to stop torrenting for a long while. Besides, there’s no other site anywhere near as complete as oink was.
http://thepiratebay.org/search/for-oink
temp oink site..
Very refreshing to know we’re safe from those bastards, even if they probably wouldn’t go after anyone anyways.
I am curious as to how exactly there isn’t enough to incriminate us, yet still keep track of ratios and whatnot.
Damn, glad I didn’t join oink!
To quote the Simpsons:
Ha ha!
(Sorry about that old chap)
@Renfru
I doubt that but it is a possibility. Never the less we’ve got to fight and you fight standing not lying down or bending over… copyright must change I seriously doubt we will lose this battle.
P2P is changing the world, right now is our chance… you can’t undo what has already happened.
We want freedom, freedom to decide what we pay for and nothing less.
Anonymous you are a jerk…. I just told my opinion if you don`t like don`t say anything, you don`t have comment everything, you not as important.
Anyway I just say that free music download not the solution, maybe if we would pay a dollar or two for an album it would be great, I`m sure the labels would have much more income like now, cos it`s not a huge money so almost everybody would buy it.
And myspace is a really god opportunity to get to know bands and stuff….
Pages: « 1 2 3 [4] 5 6 7 » Show All
Responses are closed
All remaining responses will continue to be archived. Use the TorrentFreak forums if you want to discuss something.