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UK police shut down illegal pig site
Author: Tim SmalleyPublished: 23rd October 2007
The owner of Oink was arrested this morning in a police raid in Middlesbrough.
The private music torrent site, which had around 180,000 registered members, has leaked at least 60 major pre-release albums this year alone, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry - the parent company of the RIAA and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).
The man behind the site was 24-year-old IT worker, who ran the site from a flat in Middlesbrough. He was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and infringement of copyright law.
Both his father's home and his employer, which is said to be a large multi-national company, were raided at the same time. Additionally the site's servers, which were based in Amsterdam, were confiscated last week by the Dutch police in a series of raids.
The investigation is said to have lasted over two years and had involved Interpol, the Dutch authorities and the British Phonographic Industry. This could be seen as a major coup in the fight against piracy and follows hot on the heels of TV Links - another UK-based site promoting copyright infringement - as pre-release piracy is understandably quite damaging for the recording industry.
What are your thoughts on Oink being closed down? Let us know in the forums.
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Comments (41)
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I bet that went down well with his employer
I can just imagine the conversation as he rang into work to say he wasn't turning up that day
worker : "Nope sorry can not get into work today"
Boss : "why not"
Worker : "cos your about to be raided have a nice day"
Boss : "HUH ?"
Police : Open up this is a raid, we want your porn stash and all your munchies"
police whisper to each other
Police : "yeah yeah and all your music as well"
I don't think he's going to be Mr Popular when/if he returns to work.
Also, Quack is correct.
Never used it so wouldn't know, but thanks for the correction.
**** is right. Damn it.
Ditto.
it is/was one of the 'net's worst secrets :D
Yeah, pitty I never had an account there 'cause then I could've laughed about how I no longer need to get my seed ratio up. ;)
it wasn't hoste din the UK, the head admin who happened to be called "OiNK" was based in the UK.
The actual servers were in amsterdam
glad i never accepted any oink invites then
they still wont come and look at my damaged roof though will they, twats
ROFLMAO
So e.e.l. ambiense.. you must be white around the nose now! HAve you packed you suitcase allready?
:D
No, there's no need to be worried. TPB got their servers siezed and nothing happened because of it. All the servers could list would be the IP addresses of people who've downloaded torrent files. That's nowhere near good enough evidence on it's own to make a prosecution for breach of copyright.
p.s
Bill Bryson in his book Notes from a Small Island jokingly asked why it was that the British Army uses beautiful countryside for munition target practice, rather than a place like Keighley.
...could never get an invite
Past evidence has suggested otherwise. Having said that, it does make me somewhat thankful for dynamic IPs. Not that it would ever be a problem for me.
Had a really tight invite system, hence why not a lot of people know about it.
R.I.P Oink
Best site ever!
Surely the guy who got arrested could just say God phoned him and told him to do it. Worked for Bush when invading Iraq :)
Of course...
I was being type-specific... ;)
Also, do not donate to any "legal defence funds" unless they are specifically linked to from that site, otherwise you could just be handing your cash over to a scammer.
They also have taken over the old OiNK domains, oink.cd and oink.me.uk and have pointed them to the "number 1 site in the world for waffle recipes". ;)
Awesomeness!