Police slam the screen door on illegal file-sharing

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Police slam the screen door on illegal file-sharing

October 23, 2007 12:25 p.m. by Geoffrey Nelson

British and Dutch officials have shut down one of the world's largest sources of pre-release music. No, not publicists. The filing sharing service OiNK claimed about 180,000 members world-wide, who all paid "donations" by credit card or PayPal for the right to a vast library of illegal music. Donations for download-able, new music? What kind of idiot would think that could be successful?
Authorities contend that OiNK managed to leak at least 60 albums before their release dates in just 2007 alone. The lone arrest was a 24-year old Brit who was charged with suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and infringement of copyright law. Authorities are claiming success and that this could be a serious blow to file sharing and music pirates everywhere. Law enforcement would not acknowledge if they had ever seen "Hackers" and would not admit that "kids are always one step ahead of The Man."

Posted in: MUSIC TECH , OINK

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18 Responses

October 23, 2007 at 12:34 p.m.

David Rosenfeld

the donations were voluntary. the only benefit of downloading was that you were given 2 invites so dispurse throughout the community. oink was a great community and it's tragic to know that it is gone forever.

October 23, 2007 at 12:50 p.m.

Phil B

tragic. oh so tragic. now where will all these poor people steal music from?!?! now, they'll actually have to buy albums??!!!! i don't mean to be all high and might, cause i haven't legally purchased every album i own, just 90%. but i'm honestly surprised oink lasted this long. you can't get angry when you no longer have the option to steal music (and let's be honest a new and better sight probably already exists). just go buy the albums.

October 23, 2007 at 12:52 p.m.

geoff

dave, the part about donations for new, download-able music was a joke about how successful radiohead has been doing the exact same thing. now, that i've explained it, the joke isn't funny anymore. shit. RiP OiNK?

October 23, 2007 at 12:59 p.m.

Vlad

Oink.me.uk or Oink.cd NEVER charged members for participating in the site; furthermore, users of the site were never asked to give $ in exchange for use. The preliminary news reports reflect the bias of the recording industry (RIAA, BPI, IFPI) and do not demonstrate the true nature of the site itself. Many bands (mine included) shared their music for free on Oink in the hopes that one day we might become better recognized. I can't wait until another corporate music spurning P2P bittorrent site fills the void of Oink - oh wait, it just happened. Ta.

October 23, 2007 at 1:25 p.m.

duuude

Geoff you obviously don't know what you're talking about. Donations were not a condition to be on oink. It was just a way to say thanks. Thanks for the hundreds of albums, apps, music tutorials, photoshop lessons :-) i hold you dearly in my heart oink.Oh and all the music I have is digital. Haven't bought an album four 5 years. And I have 600 hundred albums. So, an album costing something like 15'¬, that makes 600*15 = 9000'¬. I forgot to mention that I'm 21 and that I have to pay for school, rent, and pretty much everything. Tell me then, how am I supposed to spend that amount of money just on music. How am I gonna feed myself ? (in food and in music). Should I just stop listenning to music ? Without oink I'd be as retarded as you, you biased ignorant douch bag.

October 23, 2007 at 1:56 p.m.

geoff

so "duuuuude," how are the musicians who "feed" you music supposed to feed themselves? many of these guys have families, and loans, and school to a similar or greater degree as yourself. what gives you any right to steal the fruits of their labor (unless they have listed the record for free intentionally)? and just because you steal in great scale, doesn't make it any less of a theft. check your head.

October 23, 2007 at 2:04 p.m.

Nat Weiner

...and they just put up a Dubstep section. why does the federal government hate everything i love?

October 23, 2007 at 2:30 p.m.

Phil B

"dude" i really feel for you. no one else has ever had to pay for all those things like you have. you definitely deserve to get your music for free for all the hardships you've endured. just let me know if you have a problem getting free music in the future, i'll be sure to just pay for whatever you need.

October 23, 2007 at 2:48 p.m.

Man. H

Oink was a great site and it is tragic that it is gone. I have spent 1000's on cd's , some of which i would have never bought if it weren't for hearing them on Oink. I feel soooo bad for the record industry and the millions of dollars they are losing from the already millions of dollars they make. I love music and i respect all the artist, and i spent a lot of money paying to see bands live and on cd's. Am i really a bad person for downloading music? Do i have to buy an entire cd to own 1 song i like? Good thing we are going after all us scumbag criminal downloaders instead of worrying about real problems. It really is more important to protect the record industry. If downloading from oink made me a thief, then i will gladly accept that. The rest of you dont understand.

October 23, 2007 at 3:23 p.m.

coh

hey, i'm an artist and i love when i see my work get pirated and people get to listen for free. money isn't all that. it pissess off the music companies a lot more than the artists. they are the ones who care because they're the middle men exploiting their distribution rights. the reduction of exposure is a huge blow to non commercial musicians. in fact, having a distribution of music outside of a system they can control is what probably gets them the most.

October 23, 2007 at 3:34 p.m.

coh

furthermore, it's sad that someone can't listen to what i have to say just because they can't afford to.

October 23, 2007 at 3:35 p.m.

Chris Gliddon

This one's going to spark some seriously heated debates in many circles, it seems. The biggest problem with OiNK was that it had so many albums in nearly CD quality, not just plain old MP3 files on it. It was only a matter of time before such a well-organized piracy circle collapsed.

October 23, 2007 at 4:43 p.m.

Derek

Yes, it will be a big debate... There are 3 sides to every story; yours, mine, and the truth

October 23, 2007 at 5:03 p.m.

duuude

I admit I'm a thief. I couldn't listen to music if i didn't steal it, or I'd be listenning to Mika. I'll buy music when I can.

October 23, 2007 at 5:26 p.m.

Phil B

hey, i have no problem with downloading, i just don't see how people are upset when illegal sites are shut down. just go find somewhere else to download, you know it'll come up. i feel no sadness for people who, if they can't find another site, will have to PAY!!! boohoo... want only a track from an album? go to itunes. stop crying. what you're doing is illegal, but everyone does it. are you ruining record sales? maybe a little bit, but i definitely don't feel bad for the record industry, it's a broken sales model.

October 23, 2007 at 8:25 p.m.

John B

I never quite abused oink, but it was great for OOP Cd's and LP transfers that were damn near impossible to find. That will be missed for sure.

October 23, 2007 at 9:46 p.m.

Pat Hipp

You know what's phenomenal? The fact that most of the stuff I downloaded from OiNK were CDs that were sitting on my desk to be reviewed for Prefix, completely useless to me because THE RECORD COMPANIES MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO PLAY PROMO CDs IN A COMPUTER! Hey, fuckwads, got a question: what if I, like a lot of people, own a stereo that is my computer? The day will come, I think, when the record companies start being shut down by torrent sites. Like Phil said, it's a sales model that's broken and has been broken since before the advent of mp3s.

October 23, 2007 at 11:46 p.m.

Sean Nelson

"furthermore, it'''s sad that someone can'''t listen to what i have to say just because they can'''t afford to."You know, if we just had something like a public library for music, this whole thing wouldn't be too much of a problem. It could even be electronic, since that would cut back on replacing damaged cd's and the hastle of the library having to buy a thousand copies of an album, since people listen to music much more than read. Someone could log-in, play music through the site, and log-out when they were done. If you wanted to take the music around with you wherever, then you could just buy it from any number of legal entities. I don't see why music should be any less, or any more, freely accessible than books or films.