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Oink's Pink Palace

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Oink's Pink Palace (OiNK)
File:OiNK 2.png
File:OiNK.me.uk-1.1.2006.png
OiNK's frontpage at 1.1.2006
Type of site
Torrent tracker
Available inEnglish
OwnerAlan Ellis (aka OiNK)
Created byOiNK
(heavily modified TBSource)
RevenueOptional donations to cover server costs
URLhttp://oink.cd/
CommercialNo
RegistrationFree, invitation only
OiNK's main page after closure.

Oink's Pink Palace (frequently written as OiNK) was a prominent BitTorrent tracker located at Oink.cd, previously Oink.me.uk. On October 23, 2007 it was shut down by Interpol, International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), British Phonographic Industry (BPI), and other organizations.[2]

The site was an invitation-only BitTorrent community, with a membership of around 180,000[3] members at the time of closure; though only around 80,000 were regularly active. It was mainly oriented around sharing music albums in quality controlled MP3 and FLAC formats (along with most other formats such as OGG and M4A), but also offered other files such as e-books, software and e-learning videos.

Jeremy Banks, head of the IFPI's Internet Anti-Piracy Unit, has stated that OiNK was central to the illegal distribution of pre-release music, leaking more than 60 major album releases in 2007 alone.[3] Users of the site have contested this, claiming that most leaks originate from the private FTP servers of the scene, which then trickle down to other forms of distribution.[citation needed]

Open to donations to cover running costs, it has been reported by IFPI that OiNK was a pay site, where members would have to purchase "downloading rights" in order to have functionality of the site. However, donations to the site were not required for user membership under any circumstances, and simply afforded existing users the benefit of not having their account deleted for inactivity. Members would otherwise need to visit the site within six weeks of their previous visit to maintain active membership. A strict policy was in place to permanently ban any user caught offering or accepting money for a membership invitation.[3]

Pirate Parties response

Soon after the site's closure, the British and Dutch Pirate Parties issued a joint statement[4] condemning the actions as retaliatory, questioning the ethics of choreographing it and letting representatives of the alleged victims participate in the investigation. The participation of IFPI and other music organizations was compared to allowing the father of a murder victim participate in the murder investigation. The police are also alleged to have discarded the presumption of innocence.

References

  1. ^ Oink.me.uk, 30.5.2006, Happy birthday to us
  2. ^ "Illegal music sharing website closed down". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2007-10-23.
  3. ^ a b c "British and Dutch police raids shut down the world's largest pre-release pirate music site". IFPI. Retrieved 2007-10-23.
  4. ^ "Dutch and British Parties Question Legality and Ethics of Oink Take-Down" (PDF). Pirate Party of the United Kingdom (UK). Retrieved 2007-10-25.
  • Oink.me.uk in Internet Archive (archives dated between 26.7.2004 - 6.4.2007)

News coverage

News about errors in mainstream media

Comments

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