OiNK Investigation Seeks Identities and Activities of Users
Written by enigmax on October 23, 2007OiNK, one of the world’s most popular trackers has been shutdown. Now, in the hours immediately following the closure, the site is responding but displaying an ominous message indicating an investigation into the site’s users has begun.
The message currently on the OiNK page is as follows:
Many of OiNK’s users have been enquiring if their details are safe on the site. The message: “A criminal investigation continues into the identities and activities of the site’s users” will not exactly fill them with confidence.
However, everyone in the BitTorrent world will be familiar with the propaganda put out by anti-piracy organizations and many will be familiar with a similar situation a few years ago when the LokiTorrent tracker was closed and seemingly none of the users were tracked down. Fear, uncertainty and doubt - it’s all part of the anti-p2p strategy but it’s hugely doubtful that 180,000 users will be pursued, it’s just not cost effective and most are scattered around the globe.
According to whois.sc, the visitors to the site are split: United States 50.7%, United Kingdom 7%, Canada 6%, Sweden 3.2%, Germany 2.7% and Netherlands at just 1.9%. Although of questionable accuracy, these figures should give at least an idea of the trend on the site.
Clearly the statement on the homepage is designed to scare all the ex-OiNK members back into the record shops and not let them think it’s safe to join another tracker. That strategy has been tried before (You Can Click But You Can’t Hide) and it doesn’t work. Additionally, more and more people are choosing to protect their privacy with VPN services such as VPNTunnel and Relakks, finding that a small investment is worth the peace of mind in the long run.
So who are the players in this OiNK takedown?
Most people know about the IFPI - The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. This organization says it represents the worldwide interests of the recording industry with the backing of nearly 1,500 record businesses in 75 countries. Its main aim is to fight piracy.
The BPI - British Phonographic Industry is similar to the RIAA in the US. It’s made up of hundreds of music businesses and fronted by the ‘big four’ - EMI, Sony BMG, Universal and Warner. Created in 1973, its stated main aim is to combat piracy.
The FIOD-ECD - Fiscal Investigation Unit of the Dutch Police is a worrying inclusion to the list of people involved in the closure of OiNK. FIOD-ECD is a Dutch government agency dedicated to chasing down people alleged to be involved in fiscal, financial and economic fraud - usually major criminals. With these people involved, getting access to records from hosts wouldn’t have proven too difficult - FIOD-ECD are not just another BREIN, they have some serious powers.
People familiar with the ShareConnector and Releases4u cases in the Netherlands will remember the involvement of FIOD-ECD. The case took over 2 years to come to court and the result was a complete failure for them. The admin of ShareConnector got off completely and a couple of small fines (around $350) were handed out to the admins of Releases4U for uploading copyright material. Additionally, FIOD-ECD failed to provide enough evidence to prove ShareConnector was involved in copyright infringement nor enough to prove that either organization was criminal in nature.
Many people will be keeping their fingers crossed that the progress against OiNK mirrors this.
Following a 2 year investigation (or 3 month investigation, depending on the source) which involved Interpol, Police are insisting that OiNK was a pay site. Members were given the option to donate but this insistence that OiNK was some sort of criminal network where people paid to be a member is clearly untrue but it’s likely that this is the reason the real police (as opposed to the ‘copyright police’) and FIOD-ECD are involved.
Jeremy Banks of the IFPI said: “This was not a case of friends sharing music for pleasure.”
Yes it was Jeremy.
Previously: OiNK.cd Servers Raided, Admin Arrested
Next: OiNK Admin Released From Custody
174 Responses
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I propose that to celebrate free music, music community, and the fact that nothing pulls people together better than a good song we should have some rallies gathering in downtown areas during the afternoon of Halloween, Oct 31st, for a ‘face to face peer to peer’ love in!
Its simple: show up with some CD’s (standard CD or MP3 CD, your choice. I like MP3’s personally) BUT MAKE SURE THEY ARE NOT PHYSICALLY LABELED WITH THEIR CONTENTS. Hobnob and find/talk to people who like some of the music you do and trade your mixes! If you want to get nuts about it, write some MP3-filled DVD’s. That’s a crapload of music to share!
I also suggest that in honor of our dearly departed (R.I.P. OiNK) everyone come dressed as a pig. Shouldn’t be too embarrassing since its Halloween, and its not complicated either. Simple costume: color a dixie cup pink, draw two black dots on the bottom, and tie it around your head onto your nose.
Who knows, y’all might even find the event to be a great singles mixer. Anyone got any more specific ideas?
Don’t let the music die!
another allie in the fight has fallen, as we morn its loss, another will pick up the flag and carry on the task set forth.
raise your colours, and stand ready, the final battle approches.
[quote comment="193776"]BURN CD STORES TO MAKE A POINT! WORLDWIDE DESTRUCTION, AND TAKE BACK THE STREETS FROM THESE TYRANTS.[/quote]
soon my friend, not yet, but soon.
[quote comment="193637"]AES encryption is not crackable.. not unless you’ve got a couple of decades to spare but since the password you chose will probably be week or you’ll write it down for someone else to find… well. Read the god damn faq or don’t use it.
But, I guess what someone was trying to say was that no one is gonna raid your house so why encrypt… even though I agree with him all my stuff is encrypted, lol.. I know.[/quote]
Paranoia its not a desease, its a way of life.
[quote comment="194111"]Hope everything goes well for the guy who ran Oink. It was a fantastic website and I hope he knows how many people are behind him.
Cheers.[/quote]
He’ll have plenty of people behind him in jail, don’t worry about that.
o to ( O )
So if they do choose to prosecute some of the users (lets say a few hundred), what kind of upload levels do you think they’ll look for? 100gb? 500gb? 1tb?
I’m not a hacker, but if I was I would be working on shutting down their sites (please).
they actually could have been waited until i downloaded my actual whishlist, motherfuckers. LOL!
the king is dead, log live the king.
[quote comment="194114"]
I also suggest that in honor of our dearly departed (R.I.P. OiNK) everyone come dressed as a pig …. Simple costume: color a dixie cup pink, draw two black dots on the bottom, and tie it around your head onto your nose
[/quote]
LOLOL
im not inspired by the site’s lack of security.
oh.. Sombody hack that gray boring warning site.. and ad a big fat Up-Yours sign.
feel sorry for the admin.
thanx for sharing and good luck!
A criminal investigation continues
LOL.. for people dL bits and peaces from all over the world..
http://www.mininova.org/tor/956968
Oink was a king amongst kings, a true believer of what was good in the world. These corporate suited barstools are making this world a living hell. They will all burn in the war that is coming.
Its time to take up arms and defend the P2P community before its too late and the corporates turn this internet world into an advertising, waste of space.
Oink we love ya, we are sorry to see you go but perhaps the pheonix will now rise and take its rightful place in the P2P heaven.
thats awesome, hope more torrent sites get raided
i guess a someone with a 0:0 ratio has nothing to worry about?
Oink banned me unjustly so I really don’t give a shit about their welfare.
They were a bunch of f()ucking nazis anyhow.
[quote comment="194480"]Oink banned me unjustly so I really don’t give a shit about their welfare.[/quote]
but you were on the site though?
which means you should give a shit as your on the logs.
” Not wanting to start a false rumour or anything but after browsing some IRC channels i noticed a news comment on 1
“as we speak developers are working hard on http://www.moo.me.uk”
keep your eyes open
”
why would they go back to .me.uk? that obviously didn’t work.
I doubt much action will be taken against the users really. The IFPI like to use scare tactics a lot, they’re pretty harmless.
I’ve heard a rumor that the memberlist on oink.cd was heavily encrypted, and was set to selfdestruct if it didn’t reveice a certain “signal” in a certain amount of time.
Is this true?
I hope so…
It might explain why they have used 2 years on the investigation of the site.
Seems like they have monitored the sites traffic, and written down a few names and IPs.. probably the ones uploading pre-release albums and creating lot’s of torrents.
It’s clear that Oink was raided on FALSE CHARGES, whereas the nature of their operations would not allow them to be prosecuted otherwise. I SUGGEST SIR OINK SUE THE IFPI FOR PERPETRATING THE RAID UNDER FALSE ACCUSATIONS!!
LONG LIVE OINK!!! WE’LL BE BACK IN ONE FORM OR ANOTHER!!
[quote comment="194509"]I’ve heard a rumor that the memberlist on oink.cd was heavily encrypted, and was set to selfdestruct if it didn’t reveice a certain “signal” in a certain amount of time.
Is this true?
I hope so…
It might explain why they have used 2 years on the investigation of the site.
Seems like they have monitored the sites traffic, and written down a few names and IPs.. probably the ones uploading pre-release albums and creating lot’s of torrents.[/quote]
that’s possible, but self destructing material is a bit 007 to be true. However i would like to know this stuff for sure because this is what i am concerned about.
If owners can’t demonstrate proper security for their users they may end up doing the authorities job for thm!
[quote comment="193623"]@ 78:
Good thing I got a warning on oink.cd for uploading an invalid torrent 3 weeks ago..
The warning got me to use demonoid.com instead until the warning would go away.
I had almost no activities in that period of time.
Let’s hope this thing just goes away..
I’m going to think twice about downloading music again.. Didn’t like this raid on oink.cd.. :([/quote]
Actually, I tell customers all the time about copyright infringement complaints from places like demonoid and piratebay. I have come to the conclusion that it is impossible to avoid these complaints unless you just stop downloading. Let’s just hope these guys dont get any more power than they already have because nobody should get in as much trouble as they do for downloading music. I’d rather not have the most powerful entity in the world being an anti-piracy organization anyway.
what a bloody moron. Jeremy. GO fuck yourself and get your facts straight you fucking ignorant prick.
You didnt have to pay to get on this site. This site was about a community of people who shared with eachother “Based ON PLEASure”!!! It was not a financial operation you fucking idiot. Thanks to OINK, I was able to branch out so much in my tastes, which actually led me to buying more cds of bands i wanted to support and attending more shows. Protecting the artists? Fuck off man, if you think that record companies don’t already screw them in the first place. I will not be buying more cds this way to all the pieces of shit involved in this. You have destroyed something unique and memorable. The age of the record company and the profit driven system you all fucking support so much is coming to an end so why don’t you just stick it up your ass.
and to anyone advertising a new torrent site…shut the fuck up?!!!!!!!!!!! spread this message, SHUT THE FUCK UP WITH YOUR FORUM POSTS how do you think they found out about this in the first place? THis needs to be transmitted much more discreetly and carefully so watch your asses!!!! Anyone asking around in forums for invites should be instantly banned.
[quote comment="193592"]As someone who downloaded like 60gigs of music and donated money, and living in a very affluent part of the US (although not affluent themselves), what precautions should they take? What is the chance of them actually being investigated? Is TrueCrypt good enough?[/quote]
Encryption sounds like a good idea at first, but on the long run is useless: at least in one western country (UK), you can now already be be sentenced to prison time if you refuse to hand out the decryption key (i.e., much alike refusing an alcohol test) - and I’d be sure you will not have to wait for long before this law propagates to quite a few others. Although they claim it’s only about catching the usual suspects (terrorist, pedophiles, etc.) I guess this really just sucks - another of these “what the gov always wanted to do but could not SHOCK people into accepting” thing. What we actually need are better camo tools - after all, if there is no data to fuss about, there’s not much to be done for so called “IP” prosecutors…
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