Guarenteed that would turn some heads into the reality of whats going on here.

I think people underestimate what torrenting is about. Its not all about the file sharing. Beyond the filesharing lies a community of like minded people with similar interests. Torrenting gives users the chance to share and discover their interests within a community.

If anything, the only thing torrenting does is give publicity.

http://www.sjberwin.com/publicationDetails.aspx?mid=1&rid=1&ast=4&adv=1&cid=2204

…just download the PDF and have your eyes opened. Note the comment that the prosecutors fees are paid out of the public purpose whether they win or lose and that in addition to this the investigation costs can also be claimed from the public purse!

@cheggerspop – when a private criminal prosecution is launched the court papers and all associated documents say “Regina Vs Defendant”. They do not say BPI Vs Defendant or similar.

You gotta love how those bastards twist the truth :/

the latest “headline” reported on bbc 6music news @14.30 is that alan had $300,000 dollars in an account, all from donations. interesting but not incriminating imho. i bet greenpeace also have over $300,000 in donations accounts, but that doesn’t automatically make them criminals.

good luck alan.

Theoretically anyone can take anyone to court, without the Police, CPS etc. being involved and this is a private prosecution. These are normally civil and not criminal matters.

Source: http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/p_to_r/private_prosecutions/

If this were the case, the papers would read for example “The Music Industry versus Alan Ellis”.

As Alan has been arrested, interviewed and the matter put before the CPS and subsequently the courts this matter is against The Crown, hence Regina versus Alan Ellis.

Also, on the issue of the press being prevented from reporting on the hearing would suggest, and this is only a suggestion, that parts of the case are being heard in private, so people would not be able to sit in the public gallery and hear these parts of the case.

The silence issue is to protect the other defendant. The trial of Ellis will be reported in full.

Funny thing is that the 2 sites that sprang up to replace OiNK immediately after its demise are both bigger than OiNK ever was.

Good job, law enforcement!

Also, it’s very interesting that there’s that silence issue up to now. Maybe MAFIAA and merry friends are getting aware of the huge negative impact such prosecutions have when they go public in details. In any case, they might think they won against the uploaders already prosecuted but that’s their own delusion as they are in fact losing more and more customers and gaingin nothing but hatred from them and other potential customers.

I’m doing my job taking those news as far as I can. 100% of my friends download songs from the internet. 80% of them buy media they downloaded regularly. Or used to b4 those idiocies from MAFIAA started getting the spotlight.

I hope Alan can get through this unharmed. And I hope people start getting angry enough to go to the streets protest. Fortunately in my country such extreme measures against file sharers are not being taken. And unfortunately that discussion has started here too while people sell pirated physical copies on the streets….

“to defraud” ordinarily means….to deprive a person dishonestly of something which is his [...]

Please someone remind me how the **** does sharing DEPRIVE anyone of anything they HAVE. Does a copy deprive anyone of something? A copy doesn’t take, it only creates.

But then again I suppose going with that idiotic logic, one could sue a competitor for depriving them of potential customers WHICH THEY DON’T EVEN HAVE.

If we go by potentiality then abortion should be illegal as it’s murder — you’re killing “potential” humans, right?

Obvious double-standard is obvious.

Excepting the Northern Echo, which apparently has some integrity, I guess it’s to be expected that the media (including the BBC?) will do its worst and bandy about misleading ‘facts’ about the case.

The use of anti-fraud laws seems to be over-reaching and overly broad and I hope it falls flat.

FACT UK have further information
http://tinyurl.com/yj6dxjw

Whilst I didn’t find any new articles relating to OiNK, a wry smile did come to my face when I saw the two latest press releases -

http://www.bpi.co.uk/category/news-amp3b-press-release.aspx

“18 December 2009, Growing Threat From Illegal Web Downloads” – Oh, it would seem that the music industry really is being forced to it’s knees and nobody is buying music theses days, they’re just stealing it……

“23 October 2009, 2009 Is Record Year For UK Singles Sales” – Ah, so more music, well certainly singles, have been purchased in 2009 than any other year!!! Well that certainly doesn’t seem to go along with the belief that everyone is on the rob!!!

;-)

Ummm.. WTF!?

Can anyone with knowledge of legalese please explain how such a charge contains an iota of sense either common or legal?

What the hell does a ‘conspiracy to defraud’ an entire industry look like anyway? Apparently it looks like a torrent tracker. I fear a horrible precedent will be set if such a charge is prosecuted successfully.

David Groome is a barrister working for most of the Big Content industry such as BPI, FACT, Virgin Media etc. His wife, Roz Groome is the Vice President of Anti Piracy for NBC Universal.

Groome has quite the little cottage industry going at the minute. He specialises in Private Prosecutions on behalf of the aforementioned companies and charges big fees which he is then able to claim back from the UK public purse whether he wins OR loses. This outrageous strategy allows Groome to launch abusive Private Prosecutions on individuals and companies, sometimes with no prospect of success, while at the same time fleecing the UK taxpayer inordinate sums of money. Its scandalous.

The BPI’s solicitors are Wiggin LLP, in particular Mr Simon Bagg who, unsurprisingly, did a stint as the BPI in house counsel for a couple of years not long ago.

The incestous nature of this parasitic racket is coming to light more and more in the trials brought by these people. One major trial is going to reach the Supreme Court soon (House Of Lords) at which this whole seedy operation of PP’s is likely to be exposed. When that happens there will be considerable political fallout that should substantially set back the plans these people and companies have.

Of course in Madelson’s new bill these companies will be designated with police powers which makes them quite dangerous what with the way they already abuse power. Hopefully the media spotlight will convince Politicians that these people really should be given zero power in in Mandy’s bill.

Economy (not people’s wealth or wellfare) is the new religion.

So those trials are the modern version of inquisition. The suspect is already guilty, for they have to serve as an example.

Welcome to the TorquemadAA era, when everything that is against “Economy” is a devil’s deed, and be grateful nobody dies set on fire by people wearing togas anymore.

If she is, I second the motion. All in favor?

I met so many cool people on oink that i ll never forget this place.
Most of them are my friends now.

Oink was more than a tracker !

It sounds like a joke :S

What I would concentrate on if I was acting for the defence would be the motives of the people behind the site, if the motive was not to cause a loss to the music industry OR to gain an advantage at the industries expense then I think it will be a difficult case for the prosecution to prove.

A geek in Middlesborough is just not as interesting from their perspective.

Alternatively a super-cute girl getting punished for sharing..

Media is so shallow and driven by selling copies, that they would sympathise with anyone who was pretty and gave good interviews.

Good luck Alan.

We have to destroy these corporations by whatever mean needed and using whatever method it’s take.

FFS thats a load of crap …..

http://www.qebholliswhiteman.co.uk/memberProfile.php?memberID=23

I hope that Alan has an equivalent heavy hitter on his team. I think the trail should be far from a dead cert but Mr Groome has the ability to paint a lurid picture if required.