Oct 23 2007

OiNK Taken Down by Interpol, Investigation Into Users Continues

  • Written by soulxtc
  • 20 Comments


Servers in Amsterdam were raided, and the 24yo site admin was arrested in the UK.

It’s a sad day in the BitTorrent community for the OiNK, everybody’s favorite place to get music, has been shut down.

British police arrested a 24yo man in Middleborough on suspicion of being the site admin, while Dutch police simultaneously raided the sites Amsterdam-based servers. The raids, which were coordinated by Interpol, follow a two-year investigation by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

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.

OiNK was best known for its pre-release albums, with more than 60 major album releases having been leaked on OiNK so far this year. According to the IFP, this made it the primary source worldwide for illegal pre-release music.

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.

“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,” said Banks.

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.

OiNK had an estimated membership of 180,000, making it by the far the most popular music-dedicated BitTorrent tracker site. But, as we all know, just as quickly as they take one site down, two more appear in its place.

The only lingering issue that remains is the ominours warnign on the site’s HP that reads “A criminal investigation continues into the identities and users” of the site. Now the fact that OiNK had 180,000+ members means that it will be a little tough to go after everybody if they do at all. We’ve heard it before with LokiTorrent and EliteTorrents, after both of which nothing happened.

Stay tuned.

Also Read:
OiNK Memorial Site Goes Online

What to Use Instead of OiNK

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Looking for more stuff to watch or download?
Tips on how to not get busted for file-sharing
3 Quick Ways to Watch Movies for FREE!
3 quick ways to watch TV shows for FREE
BitTorrent torrent sites & search engines
uTorrent – A Beginner’s guide to BitTorrent downloading
News Tip? Comment? Suggestion? jared@zeropaid.com

Related Posts

  1. 5 More Former OiNK Users Arrested
  2. OiNK Admin: ‘The Logs We Store Aren’t Enough to Incriminate Users’
  3. Former OiNK User Arrested by UK Police
  4. OiNK Memorial Site Goes Online
  5. ‘Save OiNK’ Site Created to Help Out Embattled Founder
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Comments

  1. curlywagner

    Damn. What a shame. I really didn’t see that one coming.

  2. soulxtc

    @Curly
    Me neither. This sucks.

  3. barrakuda

    fuck

  4. Zombieman123

    That site was stuck up imo..The worst part is that I was a member there so that means they have access to my information..But I only downloaded about 700MB so I don’t think anything serious would happen but still..

  5. John Milton

    I hate this world. I’ve been a member there for a couple of months only but I LOVED that place. Fuck.

  6. VAMPYRE BLADE

    Someone must of given a cop aka pig an invite for them to get onto the network someone messed up. glad i never even tried to get one.

  7. .:sp00ky:.

    well to everyone who for the last 2 years said private sites were best way to go….epic lulz to you sirs.

  8. soulxtc

    Kinda puts invite trading into perspective :(

  9. VAMPYRE BLADE

    Yeah invited into a pigs trap

  10. soulxtc

    Kinda ironic that pigs took down “pigs” ……:P

  11. Zoness

    @soulxtc:
    hah yeah it is.

    If you really think about it private sites aren’t the way to go because when the raid happens the pigs have detailed information about everything you have uploaded/downloaded. At least places like TPB/Mininova no long-term records are kept plus its much easier to use proxys/TOR if you a really paranoid.

    I wasn’t a member of Oink but I am a member of other invite-only music sites so this definately is a threat but if you ask me the OiNK community will reform and move on there is no way to stop us torrenters.

  12. JosefStalin

    You “only” downloaded 700 megs? Thats like 100 songs. And you had to upload at least that much. Figure a dollar a song…but then how much would they charge you for these uploads? Anyway its a least two hundred bucks that you owe the RIAA. And thats assuming that theyre feeling quite generous.

    Good riddance to this elitist s(h)ite by the way.

  13. Shackles

    Hey hey guys. Cheer up! Oh sure they shut down one site big fucking deal. They dont understand that the PEOPLE are still in control. These assholes never give up however no sweat. We stand together we fight anything.

    Pirate away Yaaaar! =^^=

  14. IshareManyFilez

    NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I WAS WONDERING WHY ALL MY OINK TORRENTS WERE RED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOW WHERE AM I GOING TO GET MUSIC? UNREALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

  15. mountain_rage

    Don’t you all just feel great now your tax payers money at work to help the big corporations. Its good to know that the police judicial system and everything else is for sale. You know because thats how a democracy should work power to those with power…

  16. meyou123

    Yeah congress is doing such a fantastic job of securing American ports balancing the budget getting the US out of Iraq and protecting American consumers from bad products…..(I could go on but I made my point)

    I guess all they have left to do now is go after Terrorists….the ones that download music and movies. Great job congress….NOT!

    I won’t even mention the joke of a president we call Bush.

  17. shawners

    You all got the wrong information some how.. ELITE GOT BUSTED.. BUT DID ANY User get in trouble by the law or even SUED??? Only the admins who was located in USA with the TORRENT SITE.. HERE is what oink is said to have.
    Yawg the logs we store aren’t enough to inciminate users
    * ssv has joined #oink
    <3
    * spikeguy has joined #oink
    * dex has joined #oink

    we had logs?
    This was on IRC the other day. There was even talk about the database being encrypted annd if it lost connection at any time it would be deleted. There was a nETSPLIT on MIRC and couldnt confirm it with OINK himself. But private sites are still safer. Its just that this case was brought on by TAX man in to defrauding and maybe a law against conspiracy to commit copyright infringment. All the OINK USERS are safe. Nothing has been handed to them. NO one will go to jail. Just like everything else its a scare tactic. If you uploaded/downloaded as much from PUBLIC torrent sites you would of been arrested long ago and been served legal papers. CHECK THE FORUMS for all the info on p2p usage. Everyone that has got served was from a PUBLIC site. Or from LAME gnutella clients. OINK CONTRIBUTED more to filesharing then any of you bastards out there who DISS private sites. ALL YOu DO is read the news and SIT ON the side lines.. A man emerged from the UK to put HIGH Quality torrent site up and worked his ass off to have it maintained. Awesome features was installed on the site and it was like a MUSIC community. Features were so rich imagine when you click a torrent and then you can click on the link to see what ARTIST are like the one your about to download or to see what other albums were snatched after this album was downloaded. So people would refer other torrents to torrents that were related or that others would like.

  18. shawners

    Yawg the logs we store aren’t enough to inciminate users
    * ssv has joined #oink
    <3
    * spikeguy has joined #oink
    * dex has joined #oink

    we had logs?

  19. shawners

    Yawg the logs we store aren’t enough to inciminate users (OWNER)

    we had logs? (ADMIN/MOD)

  20. thekingace

    lol

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