Oink Shutdown! Owner Arrested!!!!

**psxcite** · October 23rd, 2007, 03:22 AM

:icon_shak
http://www.thisisthenortheast.co.uk/...al_website.php

http://www.ifpi.org/content/section_news/20071023.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tees/7057812.stm

Sad day, indeed.

Police swoop to close down illegal website

POLICE in the region have said they have closed down one of the world's biggest illegal music file sharing websites.

The site is understood to have been operating from a flat in Middlesbrough.

Up to 180,000 people were members of the private www.oink.co.uk website.

They paid to upload and download music, some of it not yet released by record companies.

The home of a 24-year-old IT worker was raided in Grange Road, Middlesbrough, was raided in a low-key operation this morning.

At the same time his father's home and his employer, a large multi-national company, were also raided.

The website's server, which was based in Amsterdam, was also closed down by Dutch police.

The 24-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and infringement of copyright law.

Detective Sergeant Tony Keogh, who led this morning's operation, said the three-month investigation had involved Interpol, the Dutch authorities and the British Phonographic Industry.

He said: "This is an infringement of copyright law that in financial terms causes immeasurable lost to record companies.

"We have been working closely with Interpol and our Dutch colleagues in Amsterdam where the website server is based to ensure that it too was secured at the time of arrest."

**melatonin** · October 23rd, 2007, 03:30 AM

British and Dutch police raids shut down the world's largest pre-release pirate music site

London, 23rd October 2007

British and Dutch police today shut down the world’s biggest source of illegal pre-release chart albums and arrested a 24-year old man in an operation coordinated between Middlesbrough and Amsterdam.

The raids, which were coordinated by Interpol, follow a two-year investigation by the international and UK music industry bodies IFPI and BPI into the members-only online pirate pre-release club known as OiNK.

OiNK specialised in distributing albums leaked on to the internet, often weeks ahead of their official release date. More than 60 major album releases have been leaked on OiNK so far this year, making it the primary source worldwide for illegal pre-release music.

The site, with an estimated membership of 180,000, has been used by many hardcore file-sharers to violate the rights of artists and producers by obtaining copyrighted recordings and making them available on the internet.

It is alleged that the site was operated by a 24-year-old man in the Middlesbrough area, who was arrested today. The site’s servers, based in Amsterdam, were seized in a series of raids last week. OiNK’s operator allegedly made money by setting up a donations account on the site facilitated by PayPal.

Cleveland Police and the FIOD-ECD SCHIPOL branch of the Dutch police undertook the raids, supported by Interpol, as part of a carefully-planned international investigation with anti-piracy investigators from IFPI and BPI.

OiNK used peer-to-peer technology called BitTorrent to distribute music. Torrent sites such as OiNK act as a library for torrent files. BitTorrent is the most popular software for internet file sharing and OiNK was the best-known for pre-release piracy.

Pre-release piracy – a growing problem

Pre-release leaks are one of the most damaging forms of internet piracy that is currently eroding legitimate sales of music across the world. Recorded music sales fell by more than a third internationally in the last six years, and independent studies show that a major factor in this decline has been internet users accessing peer-to-peer networks to steal music online.

Pre-release piracy is particularly damaging to sales as it leads to early mixes and unfinished versions of artists’ recordings circulating on the internet months ahead of the release.

Closed internet communities known as “ripping groups” often get demos, early mixes of commercial releases and promotional copies of pre-release albums in advance of release with a view to distributing the music as widely and as far ahead of release as possible. Each ripping group gains cachet amongst its peers for being the first to get new music and uses torrent sites to distribute the music as widely as possible.

OiNK operated an exclusive membership scheme by which users were only invited to join the site if they could prove that they had music to offer. They were encouraged to distribute recordings in the torrent file format with other OiNK members, and have to keep posting such music to the site to maintain their membership.

Once an album had been posted on the OiNK website, the users that download that music then passed the content to other websites, forums and blogs, where multiple copies were made.

Within a few hours of a popular pre-release track being posted on the OiNK site, hundreds of copies can be found further down the illegal online supply chain.

The recording industry says that the closure of the site is an important victory in the industry’s bid to tackle copyright theft.

Jeremy Banks, Head of the IFPI’s Internet Anti-Piracy Unit, said: “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.

“This operation was a classic example of how the recording industry can work with law enforcement agencies to prove that illegal operations on the internet are not immune from detection.”

BPI Chief Executive Geoff Taylor said: “BitTorrent has fast become the most popular file sharing client, and while the technology is now commonplace, closed criminal networks such as OiNK take time to develop; make no mistake, this operation will cause major disruption to this illegal activity.

“The government is now well aware of the scale of damage this theft causes to music – copyright theft starves the creative industries of income, which both threatens future investment in artists and vandalises our culture.

“That this individual now faces criminal charges will deter some but no doubt others will be looking move into this territory, and the authorities must keep up the pressure to deter the digital freeloaders.”

**CiS** · October 23rd, 2007, 03:41 AM

Sad, sad day for music lovers.... I was wondering why all my torrents had stopped and why I couldn't get to the site. This sucks

**Potato** · October 23rd, 2007, 04:19 AM

Dammit.

.

**thepuzzler** · October 23rd, 2007, 04:23 AM

W.T.F.

And I thought my RSS feeds had just gone down.

Shit shit shit.

Hope Alan makes it out ok from all this.

**HelenaP** · October 23rd, 2007, 04:39 AM

GottDAm*ITT!
Who paid to join? Who had to prove anything other than to the one inviting them?
That's some of the most inaccurate reporting I have ever read!

(((((((AUGH!!!!)))))))

I'm going now...I am becoming disturbed.
Grrrrrr...

**thepuzzler** · October 23rd, 2007, 04:55 AM

They are a lot of inaccuracy's as Helena pointed out, but you would have at least thought they would have got the domain correct!

Up to 180,000 people were members of the private www.oink.co.uk website.

I also think it's wrong that the IFPI are making OiNK out to be a pay-to-leech site.

**abrecords** · October 23rd, 2007, 05:03 AM

it's impossible to believe.. the greatest loss for music lovers in years... not fare.. in my opinion those forced this investigation got it all wrong.. OiNK is not about piracy and illegal stuff.. it's about loving music, caring for it.. it's a community for which music is one of the most important things (hobbies, you call it..) in life.. hopefully the way out will be found..

**thepuzzler** · October 23rd, 2007, 05:17 AM

I wonder where the 180,000 strong exodus will end up?

**mountain_rage** · October 23rd, 2007, 05:42 AM

I wonder how many years it will take to see the big 4 get chiseled down to the point where they no longer have the collective power to force their views on the world. Because well all know politics won't change and politicians will continue to be bribed. Yet at the same time its inevitable that under fair practice the music labels will eventually wither due to the lack of any need of a distributor. So unless an artificial need is created they are likely to go the way of the ice salesmen.

**psrst143** · October 23rd, 2007, 05:42 AM

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.

HOPE THEY GET THE SITE BACK RUNNING AGAIN AND IF IT DOES IT WOUD BE MY DREAM COME TRUE :)

**jam2k** · October 23rd, 2007, 06:25 AM

I fucking don't believe it

**carpefile** · October 23rd, 2007, 06:53 AM

I do. It was pretty well covered that oink had been infiltrated, I guess just nobody worried cause private invite only trackers are so "safe".
I'm sure the 24 yr old owner arrested will stand tough and take the fall to protect his membership though.:icon_salu

In any event the p2p hydra will persevere.:icon_thum

**jam2k** · October 23rd, 2007, 07:06 AM

Well that was my 1st reaction, of course I do believe it. I was just shocked.

We have to understand this is a big hit, not only because they shutdown a damn big site, but for the impact generated on people.

In other words, the message they brought to us is "No one is safe and no one can hide from us, even if you're a public tracker or private".