OiNK Launches Legal Defense Fund

Written by Ernesto on November 11, 2007 

Last month the popular private BitTorrent tracker OiNK was effectively shut down in a joint effort by Dutch and British law enforcement. OiNK admin Alan Ellis who was arrested during the raid now launched a legal defense fund to cover the legal costs and asks former OiNK members to help him out.

oinkAlan has put a message on his reclaimed domain where he writes: “A PayPal account has been setup for those of you wishing to give a gift to help cover legal costs, if or when they arise. Although the account is not in my name (it can’t be), it is someone I trust.”

The donations will be used to cover the legal costs Alan is likely to make. If for some reason the money isn’t needed it will be donated to an animal charity (pigs?). The official OiNK fundraiser is hosted at saveoink.com, and unlike the scams we have seen before, it is totally legit.

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. Although most of its members found a new home by now, there is little doubt that it will be very hard to equal the success of OiNK

At this point it is still unclear what the charges against Alan will be, more details on this will come out next month. We will keep you updated of course.

Previously: Canadian Police Tolerates Piracy For Personal Use

Next: Prince To Take On The Pirate Bay

71 Responses

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1 Nov 11, 2007 at 02:47 by 3rnesto

I saw this and was wondering if you would post it here :)

2 Nov 11, 2007 at 03:15 by dave

This is great, i have so much respect for OiNK (aka) alan. most site owners seem to disappear with no word of whats going on, but alan has been up front and honest about it all. and still shows his face here and there.

i wish you all the best OiNK :)

official OiNK.cd replacement?

what.cd

3 Nov 11, 2007 at 03:20 by thirtysix

what.cd is good but can never stay online. I hear indifferent things about waffles, but who the hell can get an invite anyway?

Good luck Alan, I hope everything goes well for you.

4 Nov 11, 2007 at 03:32 by Dyslogistic

Yeah, What.cd keeps going offline but I think they’re just going through some surges. Waffles.fm is like, impossible to get into and from what I hear, run by assholes.

5 Nov 11, 2007 at 03:45 by Moo, I'm at UCF

Good luck, Alan.

6 Nov 11, 2007 at 04:06 by arejay

if anyone has a what.cd invite, could you please send it to rj@dawnshosting.com

7 Nov 11, 2007 at 04:17 by Tyler

^^^
Has begging for invites worked in the past, 6?

8 Nov 11, 2007 at 04:22 by cornhulio

I want to wish Alan well I will be donating to the fund, it’s unclear at this point what is going to happen with the case I hope it is settled out of court and as quickly as possible.

Since the destruction of oink I have stopped using bittorrent and I will not be buying any new music that is part of a major label.

I don’t know how workable this is in the long term but screw the record labels I have nothing but contempt for them.

9 Nov 11, 2007 at 04:24 by cornhulio

number six you really are a number two!!

10 Nov 11, 2007 at 04:25 by cornhulio

[quote comment="209799"]number six you really are a number two!![/quote]

no offense poster number two !!

11 Nov 11, 2007 at 04:26 by H

[quote comment="209752"]Yeah, What.cd keeps going offline but I think they’re just going through some surges. Waffles.fm is like, impossible to get into and from what I hear, run by assholes.[/quote]
Actually it is pretty possible, and no, it is not run by assholes. The community is nice and friendly too. The most important part is: 1:4 user:torrent ratio. Used to be even higher until the recent influx of new users, but they will start uploading too.
31,644 torrents in so little time.

12 Nov 11, 2007 at 04:32 by Tyler

Thinking outloud…

With as much attention as the shutdown of OiNK has gotten, I wonder how an official replacement will be announced without drawing too much attention. Or is that even a concern anymore?

13 Nov 11, 2007 at 04:39 by Ben Jones

tyler - what difference would there be in launching a new site without much attention?

If that happened, the only people who wouldn’t know of it would be the regular users who don’t hang around IRC, or certain forums. ‘The Industry’ will find out about it regardless.

14 Nov 11, 2007 at 04:55 by rafiorly

Yay, I requested this :D Good to see a blog where they listen to their readers.

15 Nov 11, 2007 at 05:12 by Tyler

Ben - To get a similar userbase to that of OiNK, there would need to be a certain amount of “publicity”. But at the same time, I was thinking that one would want to avoid exposure to “The Industry”. But you’re right. “The Industry” will find out regardless and I think at this point it doesn’t matter if they know or not.

16 Nov 11, 2007 at 05:17 by Johnny

Anyone know where Edward Webber (”Lowkee”) is? I’d like to get some money back out of him first. Never again after the Lokitorrent scandal!

17 Nov 11, 2007 at 05:54 by h33t

oh Alan what have you done!

under UK law you qualified for free legal aid! now all the donations will be seized by the state to pay your legal costs

it was smarter you simply asked for some cash to pay your rent. the anti-p2p activity on your tail is gonna wipe out this defense fund. how stupid can a pig be?

18 Nov 11, 2007 at 05:55 by h33t

this is not America

19 Nov 11, 2007 at 06:03 by puppy

so if they win were all happy again and oink is back up with everyone having the same ratio they did before it got shut down?

20 Nov 11, 2007 at 06:34 by Whoopdee

Oink.ms

21 Nov 11, 2007 at 06:34 by darkone

Screw OINK and I hope they get canned. Those elitist assholes banned me after 2 days… I got 3 albums with utorrent, left them for seeding, came back a day later to find a ratio of 2.3, but all my speeds at 0. Went to their site and they said they had banned me for cheating. I tried talking to them in chat, but they are so fucking high and mighty they said I was obviously cheating and their system wasn’t wrong. They then banned my ip from the chat. I tried back a couple times at later dates and they gave me the same BS.

22 Nov 11, 2007 at 06:52 by Johnson

i just wished the idiot had given someone the database so they could continue with the complete oink members

im a power user i’ve provided proof i’ve done my damndest to provide infomation like they asked to get into a new home and what do we get back?

nothing..

The smart thing would of been to give the database to a reliable source and when that source become a replacement all the old user accounts would be active to login.

but nope 1.5 +tb power user cannot get into the new communitys due to stupid idiots who run them

they ask for proof we give them proof and yet no response

hell we don’t even get a full confirmation of how to “Contact them” and they actually expect new member and new users to just telepathically know where to go to speak to someone? ….

it’s ridiculous i feel more like oink has screwed me over considering the amount of time and albums and content we put up and we are left in the cold

i’d of loved to help with his legal cover but since he shafted all his loyal users screw it.

23 Nov 11, 2007 at 07:02 by Stephen

Johnson’s a dick.

24 Nov 11, 2007 at 07:06 by Kadath

Haha, some of the comments here just prove that “exclusive” private torrent trackers are all about the “my ratio is bigger than your ratio” dick-waving contests, with users feeling cheated when their precious clubs get broken up.

Why would most ex-OiNK users even care now? Most of them have moved on to the alternatives that have popped up since OiNK went down. So much for loyalty to their beloved “community.” They don’t give a shit about that. Most of them just care about being members of what is essentially the “no girls allowed” treehouses of the digital age.

25 Nov 11, 2007 at 07:26 by Slacker

My ratio is bigger than your ratio.

http://askaslacker.blogspot.com

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