OiNK.cd Servers Raided, Admin Arrested
Written by Ernesto on October 23, 2007The servers of OiNK.cd - one of the most popular private BitTorrent trackers - are raided and the admin, a 24-year-old man from Middlesbrough, is arrested.
The British and the Dutch police both contributed to the investigation that was initiated by the IFPI and the BPI, two well known anti-piracy organizations. The operation was supported by Interpol who coordinated the international cooperation.
According to early reports OiNk’s servers were confiscated in Amsterdam last week. This seems to be unlikely because the site was still fully functional 24 hours ago. The administrator of OiNK was arrested this morning by the Cleveland Police. The BBC reports that his employer and the home of his father were raided as well.
Jeremy Banks, Head of the IFPI’s Internet Anti-Piracy Unit, said in a reponse to the news: “OiNK was central to the illegal distribution of pre-release music online. This was not a case of friends sharing music for pleasure. This was a worldwide network that got hold of music they did not own the rights to and posted it online.”
OiNK hosted hundreds and thousands of torrents with over a million peers which makes it more popular than most public trackers. The site was known to be one of the first places where leaked music albums appeared, so anti-piracy outfits such as MediaDefender were keeping a close eye on it.
In July the tracker already changed its name from OiNK.me.uk to OiNK.cd due to “legal” issues with their domain registrar. Unfortunately it now seems that the popular private BitTorrent tracker is in bigger trouble.
developing story…
Previously: BitTorrent Gets More Social with AllPeers
Next: OiNK Investigation Seeks Identities and Activities of Users
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someone needs to do this:
1) Set up a torrent tracker exactly like oink was
2) charge a monthly subscription fee based on GB downloaded
3) allocate the revenue to the labels (or a copyright collection agency) pro-rata based on the amount each artist is downloaded…
this ruined my life
Too bad. But I am not surprised. Rumours about Oink being under close scrutiny by the cops and org’s like IFPI has been going on for quite a while now. And it’s only natural that they would go after the biggest torrent site available. I bet the Oink folks have taken this under consideration and planned accordingly. I wonder where their hotsite is. The media has reported the servers in Amsterdam where confiscated. I don’t know about the laws in the Netherlands - will they get away with that?
As far as for individual users, I don’t think they have anything to fear. They got what they wanted when they closed down the site. That creates alot less badwill in common peoples eyes than when they file lawsuits against kids.
[quote comment="193074"]Oh no, a dude that was profiting (yes, that’s right) from pointing peeps to copyright infringing works gets busted.
Good, I’m glad because whilst I think the movie/music studios make stupid amounts of money from us and ought to be ashamed of themselves you can’t correct that “wrong” by doing another.
So sad that people have lost the ability to tell right from wrong.
And it shows how “loyal” the “community” is when the first things they ask is if anyone knows of an “alternative”.[/quote]
Whats your sources on him actually profiting from this? IFPIs press release?
I want facts, not bitching, and especially none of those bullshit lies coming from the authorities that usually surround busts like this.
As far as we know, he was barely making even each month paying for the hosting.
Blah blah.
Im sad. :(
Is this suppose to stop piracy?
Absolutely gutted by the news! The hard work and dedication that was put into the site was a testiment to just how good Oink was. A very sad day, however beasts like this just dont die!
This news wont have come as a suprise to anyone, especially the admins. It will only be a matter of time (probably days) before all those trackers are back online under another guise / server location.
I think it was time they rebranded anyway. Pink was so last season! ;-)
OiNK.cd was more of a warez operation than a filesharing site where friends swap files for fun. they hosted content on seed servers, the staff were active to obtain and release 0-day content, and membership was by selective entry invitation only. it all points to criminal conspiracy to supply copyright material
OiNK.cd will be missed by me and all the filesharing music lovers who appreciated the depth, breadth, and quality of the content. i feel for Alan and his Dad and his Boss and his m8s who are all today sitting in the crapolla. is gonna be a long time ’til the nitemare is over for them
i doubt very much if OiNK.cd kept any logs and a donation does not link you to a criminal conspiracy. the police will find everything they need on the seed servers, the rest they will have already gathered from infiltration of the site. the OiNK.cd membership can relax, go find another quality site. but this time guys, choose to build a filesharing site and not a warez site
h33t.com says if you enjoy the content then support the authors and buy it
remember donating money to a website is not a crime… yet… so don’t be worried that you have donated.
This is what u see when visiting the site right now.
———
This site has been closed as a result of a criminal investigation by IFPI, BPI,
Cleveland Police and the Fiscal Investigation Unit of the Dutch Police (FIOD ECD) into
suspected illegal music distribution.
A criminal investigation continues into the identities and activities of the site’s
users
This site has been closed as a result of a criminal investigation by IFPI, BPI,
Cleveland Police and the Fiscal Investigation Unit of the Dutch Police (FIOD ECD) into
suspected illegal music distribution.
A criminal investigation continues into the identities and activities of the site’s
users
Time to clean up folks !!
shame, used to be a member, it was a nice site. a bit pink, but nice.
my membership lapsed unfortunately.
R.I.P.
Let’s see: eMule network critical, Demonoid gives no Pass to Canada, Isohunt no pass to the US, TV links is gone, some jack ass former employee of TorrentSpy backstabs for money, and now Oink is gone.
Anyone can add to this list. ^^^^
Personally, I really think that the Torrent community and the P2P community as well should keep a larger eye on things. I also feel that these anti-p2p and anti-piracy groups are starting to gain some momentum. If crap like this keep going for the nest year or so, I think that the entire sharing community should be concerned.
*prepared to get flamed by IQ-less assholes*
Good luck to everyone in the oink stuff. I’ll miss you.
[quote comment="193197"]someone needs to do this:
1) Set up a torrent tracker exactly like oink was
2) charge a monthly subscription fee based on GB downloaded
3) allocate the revenue to the labels (or a copyright collection agency) pro-rata based on the amount each artist is downloaded…[/quote]
A great idea and something that been something that I’ve been thinking about for a while. My variation on that was allowing users to DL whatever they want but with every gb downloaded to buy one album. That way the right people would get the money. Hell maybe even cut out the suit wearing, ponytailed, diamond earring wearing jerkoffs from getting a cut. There’s a real chance for someone to be an entrepreneur and hero here and prevent the artists from getting shafted.
Is an HD wipe really necessary? Shouldn’t we wait until (and if) they start going after individuals?
[quote comment="193033"][quote comment="193028"]The moderators where arrogant. You visit the IRC for help you get kicked. The site op’s often asked for donations, and make a profit from file sharing of music.
To me, it servers him right. He was doing something illegal, even worse making money out of P2P.[/quote]
Hardly - did you have any idea what kind of servers they were running? These things cost a bomb and the site ran like a dream because of it.
The style of moderation made the site what it is, and I’d hardly call it arrogant. Maybe you’d like to try doing something on a similar scale to see how you coped. :/[/quote]
Thats funny ive had account on there for over two years & never donated a single penny or dime so how is that making money out of file sharing
————————–
you r a twat for thinking that you had to pay for this service all torrent sites r free aslong as you keep a good ratio ((fucking knob heads who think this))
they reckon he was loaded? he lived in _middlesborough_
as for oink? i’ll miss it more than you’ll ever know. x
hah post 192! get it? i win a prize
I’m gay.
check the metro article:
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=72515&in_page_id=34
how many inaccuracies can YOU spot? i’ve got 6.
FUCK
That will teach them. Banning me ha!
No I was banned, but not with a specific reason. It costed me too much trouble to get in so I let it.
Alan, I wish you the best. It was the best music-torrent-site
is wiping hard drives really necessary at this point?
Does anyone know what, if any, logs were kept by OiNK?
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