OiNK Pre-Releasers Accused of Conspiracy To Defraud Music Industry
Written by enigmax on June 01, 2008Following revelations on Friday that police had begun to arrest ex-OiNK users, we are now in a position to add further details. The police are arresting people allegedly involved in the pre-release uploading of music albums, accusing them of ‘Conspiracy to Defraud the Music Industry’.
After receiving information that British police had started to arrest ex-users of OiNK in the on-going ‘Operation Ark Royal’, we published an article on Friday. We had been sitting on this story while we negotiated with our sources to be able to include as much information as possible, without compromising their situation. We are now in a position to offer more information.
It seems the music industry’s desire to paint OiNK as a criminal network focused on the ruination of the music business, has so far led them to direct the police into arresting users who allegedly pre-released albums, i.e shared albums before their stated retail release date. As mentioned in our previous article, there are no laws in the UK which give extra gravity to pre-release cases, but the music industry seems keen to portray this type of copyright infringement as being much more serious. It has been their theme since the day of the original raid and shutdown of OiNK.
Many observers have been questioning for some time now why the police are involved in this case when it’s believed users of the site committed only civilly actionable offenses at best. It’s clear that simple copyright infringement isn’t what the music industry has in mind.
Those accused were visited by detectives involved with ‘Operation Ark Royal’, sometimes accompanied by local police. After identification, they were arrested under suspicion of “Conspiracy to Defraud the Music Industry”, told that they were not alone and that police would be arresting and interviewing more people in connection with the case. Suspects were then taken to their local police station for questioning and required to provide DNA samples and fingerprinting.
During their interview the suspects were asked all about OiNK, their understanding of the purpose of the site and what they did as a user there. The police were also keen to discover if these alleged pre-releasers personally knew OiNK admin, Alan Ellis, which of course - like the majority of OiNK members - they didn’t.
The police have been asking the suspects for their account details on OiNK. The police are in possession of user account names and email addresses registered on the site, but were keen for the suspects to provide their passwords, adding weight to the belief that user’s passwords were successfully encrypted with a salted MD5 hash.
Suspects were then released on bail while the police went to make further enquiries. It is believed that those arrested will have to appear at a designated police station on the same day that Alan Ellis is to answer his bail, July 1st 2008. So far, Cleveland Police haven’t responded to our request for information.
A really nice gesture has been made by the team of solicitors working on behalf of OiNK administrator Alan Ellis. They have offered free legal support to certain arrested individuals.
Previously: The Pirate Bay: Two Years After the Raid
Next: British Police Confirm Six OiNK Users Arrested
153 Responses
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What a joke, seriously, are people in power really so ignorant ?
Police should be out solving real crimes, not arresting some geeks for sharing music online. It might be time to overthrow the government…
How could the police tell who uploaded what files?
:-( I miss oink!
Ron Michaels: They can’t. Someone was obviously outside their houses using their wifi.
The music industry in the same way that the cellular telephone has a great deal of influence with the British Government. There have been different news programs that have indicated that the cellular industry has given a great deal of money to their friends in the Government, has the music industry done the same? No doubt in my mind!
Still haven’t cited any sources?
Do we know whether any of their computer equipment was taken away? or were they just taken in for questioning?
What sources are they supposed to cite? They made it clear they’re getting the info from the people directly involved, who obviously aren’t going to want their names in here… So they either run the story without “citing sources” or they sit on it - I’d rather it came out. Feel free not to believe anything you read if that’s what you want…
Exactly, I would like to thank TF for keeping names, details and locations from the public domain. These people will be going through enough as it is.
Won’t using the same legal team as Alan Ellis imply they know him though?
How does that stand up legally?
@10 Thanks, and they didn’t know him, but they got in contact through us after they were arrested.
Just put the hashes on a super computer with a good rainbow table, everything will come out in a week..
crack the passwords ? why would they want them, oh to access their email and such, time to change all my passwords me thinks!
Looks like alot of people that love to jump on the “I hate TF and now i’m gonna sit here and cry about it” bandwagon yet again have there foot in there mouth and owe an apology.
I for one appreciate the TF staff’s work. Please keep up the nice efforts, and ty for not putting peoples names in the story for idiots to read. I’m sure they’re having a rough enough go at it, as it is.
I thought the police knew about the law?
What the fu*k is going on!!!!
#12 said
“just put the hashes on a super computer with a good rainbow table, everything will come out in a week..”
This dosn’t work well for salted hashes. Even a super computer would need a long ass time to break a salted hash.
they won’t have to crack the passwords; i’m sure some admin will roll over and give them up in return for a lighter sentence/fine,
So are they after original seeders, or anyone who was in a pre-release swarm?
What good would having passwords do them?
This is typical of the UK these days,we have an epidemic of knife crime and gun crime and what does this cancer of a goverment do, nothing absolutly nothing,they seem to think its wiser to ignore it and hope it will go away while sliding up the arse of the BPI.This country’s fucked when the law seems more interested in going after uploaders and not crack dealing fuck heads who think its normal to stab someone in the neck for no reason.
Time to charge up the cattle prod….
@18
Depends, I suppose depending how the investigation goes they may cast the net wider. No one will know yet I seriously doubt.
@18 Christ dude learn to read. Its obviously the people that UPPED the pre-release albums they’re after.
The UK is obviously modelling itself on Saudia Arabia or the old Soviet Union.
How did this happen?
Murderers are walking the street while the police are arresting music lovers for erm..loving music.
Do I love music? Obviously not as much as these Oink users.
I am glad that there are anonymous BT alternatives e.g. Dargens p2p http://www.Dargens.com .
However, this incident shows that there is something rotten at the heart of British justice.
It seems weird that no one has mentioned “required to provide DNA samples and fingerprinting”. I forgot that these “criminals” were violent offenders and needed to be cataloged. This world is creeping closer and closer to Orwell’s vision in “1984″. Talk is cheap if you want to overthrow government vote.
@23 Its now standard practice in our Police State in the UK, anyone arrested innocent or guilty has fingerprints and DNA taken.
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