world’s largest site of illegal pre-release music has been shutdown…
Posted October 23, 2007 — in Music News
British and Dutch police have shut down Oink the world’s biggest site of pirated pre-release albums. OiNK distributed albums weeks ahead of their official release date and had an estimated membership of 180,000.
This membership model was as creepy as the website name oink. People were only invited to become members if they could prove they had music to offer and had to keep posting tracks to maintain their membership.
Authorities found the site was operated by a 24-year-old man who lived near Middlesbrough in north-east England. He was arrested Tuesday. The site’s servers, based in Amsterdam which is the home of prostitution and drugs, were seized in raids last week.
Jeremy Banks, head of the IFPI’s Internet anti-piracy unit said “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.” (Reuters)
This is what the U.S. needs to do with filesharing sites.
Comment by Tim Towner — October 23, 2007 @ 9:03 am
good
Comment by A2daC — October 23, 2007 @ 9:22 am
It’s really funny to read what the image is of our capital city: “…in Amsterdam which is the home of prostitution and drugs”. And we’re g*ddamn proud of it!
I guess the writer of this article has never been to Amsterdam. And you don’t want to know how sick we are of bands talking on stage about how stoned the audience is… We don’t smoke as much marihuana as people from foreign countries (think). I don’t even know how to write ‘marihuana’
Comment by Bart Nijssen — October 23, 2007 @ 9:33 am
“The site’s servers, based in Amsterdam which is the home of prostitution and drugs, were seized in raids last week.”
that is such an ignorant statement
Comment by wes — October 23, 2007 @ 10:19 am
lmao @ “the home of prostitution and drugs.” That’s just ridiculous. I mean… really ridiculous.
“People were only invited to become members if they could prove they had music to offer and had to keep posting tracks to maintain their membership.”
That’s completely wrong.
Comment by Jon Cole — October 23, 2007 @ 2:12 pm
How did Amsterdam become the focul point rather than OINK? That is a bizarre name btw. But since everybody is talking about Amsterdam - it has become a refuge for drug addicts and drug culture.
The Amsterdam motto is “tolerate it, rather than prohibit it and subsequently lose control”
Yes, Amsterdam has legalized Euthanasia, several drugs, and prostitution. If you like to hump, get high and maybe even kill off a relative because he or she is to old, then Amsterdam is the PERFECT place. Whats wrong with that?
Tom
Comment by tom — October 23, 2007 @ 2:41 pm
The way you actually got a membership to OiNK was by invites of other people or friends. You don’t have to keep posting tracks to keep your membership, you just have to maintain a ratio that shows you are uploading a decent amount compared to how much you download. This is to ensure that people are sharing music.
Comment by Jason — October 23, 2007 @ 5:06 pm
Does the author have tourette’s syndrome? What does the prostitution and drug comment have to do with this topic?
There was nothing creepy about the membership model. You just had to be invited by another member in good standing. It is false that you had to have content to offer. Members needed to keep a minimum ratio of uploading vs downloading, but no one was ever required to post any new content… only share what they had already downloaded.
Jeremy Banks obviously doesn’t understand how torrent technology works, which is ironic. No music was ever posted online by Oink or any of its members. Obvious to anyone who understands how peer-to-peer networks operate, which I guess does not include the people responsible for shutting down Oink.
Comment by Zack — October 24, 2007 @ 8:05 am
@Jason
amen
Comment by vegard — October 26, 2007 @ 3:42 pm