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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knew it was too good to last…
Read here:
http://tehpaine.blogspot.com/
One way to fight back:
http://f2fp2p.blogspot.com/
just threw a few bones to oinkybank.com
thespacelab.tv is just another of those major label worshipping sites that truly believe the artists get a fair deal from their “owners”.
quite honestly, if anyone here really believes artists get what they deserve from the labels, they should go read what many of them have to say. small fractions from each CD sale, having to pay the label for unsold CDs, a cut of their merchandise and tour profits demanded now by many labels… and you call the pirates bad?
as long as they have the power, the public brainwashing will continue… but for every site they close, another will take its place.
Sign of things to come? Looks like the self legislation / new laws are just round the corner…
Why has no-one picked up on this?!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7059881.stm
[quote comment="193566"]OINK was an evil pig that deserved to go to the slaughterhouse. They got fat off of donations and whatever else they could root out. OINK was not true P2P. TRue P2P is people sharing, saying what they want without fear, not worrying about BS ratios. There will always bee leechers. The Admins made life HELL. One could get banned for nothing. They had silly rules. For instance, unless you had an avatar of a cutsy utsy stuffed anilmal you were banned! I swear! I hope they ROT in jail and misery for making people live in fear on their site. Be carefull LEROY when you bend over to pickup that bar of soap….hahahah![/quote]
Quit showing your stupidity. I was a memeber for over 2 years and never had an avatar yet never got banned. While at times the moderators made bad decisions, show me one human being that has never made a mistake. I am tired of all the whiners that say how unfair the mods were. I was a member for a long period of time and never had a problem as all I did was to download and then share back to the community. It seems that those that had problems were people who were not able to do such a simple thing. Nobody ever said you had a right to be a member of the site so don’t think that you did. I get so tired of crybabies like yourself that can’t even get the facts straight. No wonder you were banned.
Lets not be in denial here! of course, locating and sorting out the behaviours of 180k of people is not what is the issue here!
they’re using Oink users as scape goats (as they always need scape goats) to creat a precedence to people around the globe!
Lets say around 7% (according to a source from Wiki) is British (and it is under British investigation), which is about 12,000 people; the police can simply create a precedence over time by analyzing the server (which WILL have the suspect IPs) and randomly pick out accountable users here and there!
Maybe it’s important for them to pick out a random minority % of Oink users (even if it was a couple of hundred!) Or, maybe you think they believe the message has sunk in with one arrest? I doubt it!
I believe (unfortunately as it sounds) they WILL arrest people (Higher end users) to create this precedence! I was a low end user! However, I can face facts; that I could be one of the scape goats!! sorry!
piracy always existed and nobody can stop that doesn’t matter what you do. Just think about that, you are outnumbered :):)
Labels may have too much money - but bands deserve to be able to sell their music, and the price they are able to charge for it should reflect how much the market (that’s you) is willing to pay for it - it’s too good to be true for a very good reason, buying music is fair.
Let’s just hope that this all ends up with the labels earning less and the bands earning more, but everyone earning a living doing what they love. Thing is if you remove money from the equation altogether you remove the ability to support yourself and actually be in a band.
So the british press are saying that the authorities are going after the users of the site. I would expect that to mean the ones in the UK. Oh Lummocks!!!
[quote]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.[/quote]
that is the best post i’ve ever read in relation to the oink shutdown, and i could not agree with you more.
Well said :-)
Say. Anyone want to sell an invite?
[quote comment="193566"]OINK was an evil pig that deserved to go to the slaughterhouse. They got fat off of donations and whatever else they could root out. OINK was not true P2P. TRue P2P is people sharing, saying what they want without fear, not worrying about BS ratios. There will always bee leechers. The Admins made life HELL. One could get banned for nothing. They had silly rules. For instance, unless you had an avatar of a cutsy utsy stuffed anilmal you were banned! I swear! I hope they ROT in jail and misery for making people live in fear on their site. Be carefull LEROY when you bend over to pickup that bar of soap….hahahah![/quote]
[quote comment="193373"]Isn’t there a serial killer somewhere that needs to be caught?[/quote]
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