p2pnet - rss feed: OiNK saga moves to Norway
p2pnet news | Music:- IT consultant Alan Ellis has been accused by Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s BPI of being the man who runs one of the world’s biggest pirate sites.
And that’s enough to have set Interpol off on a hugely expensive two-year investigation on behalf of the corporate music industry, funded by European tax-payers and ultimately leading to an embarrassing UK media feeding frenzy which would have done the paparazzi chasing Britney Spears proud.
Ellis, arrested Tuesday on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and copyright infringement, is free on bail while computer gear and documents snatched from his home, his work place and his father’s home, “are undergoing forensic examination.,” says the Daily Telegraph.
But he says OiNK is/was no more illegal than search engine sites such as Google which could also direct users to illegal music downloads.
Ellis was contracted to work as an IT consultant for Virgin Media’s contact centre in nearby Stockton-on-Tees, but was dismissed on the day of his arrest, says the story.
‘My site is no different to something like Google’
“I don’t sell music to people, I just direct them to it,” story has him saying, going on:
If somebody wants to illegally download music they are going to do it whether my site is there or not.
If this goes to court it is going to set a huge precedent. It will change the internet as we know it. As far as I am aware no-one in Britain has ever been taken to court for running a website like mine. My site is no different to something like Google.
If Google directed someone to a site they can illegally download music they are doing the same as what I have been accused of. I am not making any Oink users break the law. People don’t pay to use the site.
A spokesman for Cleveland Police, acting as Big 4 Copyright Cops, funded by British taxpayers, says, “It is too early to tell if we will go after individuals, it all depends on what we find,” according to the Daily Telegraph.
Norway is next
“With the BitTorrent world spinning on its heels after the shock takedown of the huge OiNK tracker, there are now indications that the shutdowns may continue. According to the lawyer who lost against ‘DVD Jon’, next stop is Norway and raids are imminent,” says Torrentfreak over in The Netherlands, continuing:
The war against BitTorrent - usually played out on the civil law arena - has suddenly found itself in the criminal domain. The rules have changed.
With the whole BitTorrent community asking themselves what comes next, a clear indicator has come from a lawyer who works for the industry prosecuting file-sharers:
Norway is next and raids are imminent.
Espen Tøndel is a Norwegian lawyer well known for his legal defeat against ‘DVD Jon’. He is currently working with the Norwegian branch of the IFPI and MPAA.
Tøndel says the Norwegian police are prepared and ready to carry out raids against Norwegian sites. Everything is in place.
When asked to identify the sites, Tøndel refused to elaborate other than to say that the investigation has been underway for some time and that enough names and evidence has already been gathered to make prosecutions in several cases.
When questioned about the possible fate of Norwegian members of OiNK specifically, nothing further was added other than to stress the close co-operation between British, Dutch and Norwegian police.
Tøndel also speculates on who might be prosecuted if the OiNK database is available to police. His thoughts range from suggesting people who upload and downloaded a lot might be in trouble, right through to ‘random individuals’. Or maybe there is another possibility?
Maybe the police don’t have usable lists.
According to the article, a source has stated that the OiNK membership list was not only encrypted, but also equipped with a ’self-destruct’ type mechanism which relied on a regular signal to continue in ‘OFF’ mode.
Although unconfirmed, this situation would be of some comfort to OiNK’s 180,000 members.
It’ll be educational to see the Norwegian police force is as cooperative (servile?) as Britain’s.
Definitely stay tuned
Also See:
media feeding frenzy - Big Music’s OiNK farce rolls on, October 24, 2007
Daily Telegraph - Oink founder: We’re just like Google, October 25, 2007
Torrentfreak - OiNK Down, Norwegian BitTorrent Trackers Next, October 24, 2007
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October 25th, 2007 at 9:45 am
They can shut down the entrie internet it will not make us go backe to buy their shits. On the contrary the more nasty and criminals they are the easier it is to spread the boycott. They are on their last straw. Few more year and all these parasites will be history. Continue and spread the boycott large and wide! I am making pretty good progress on my side.
October 25th, 2007 at 9:46 am
A bullet for Tøndel please.
October 25th, 2007 at 10:04 am
the recording and media industries organising these raids are example of
this utmost lowlife kind of greedy arrogant money obsessed attitude that the big greedy corporates
is so good at. As if anyone in the industry has to skip a meal cuz people are downloading stuff for free.
They might only make a little less profit, but its still HUGE PROFITS. Ceo’s, managers, bosses, bigshots
they all have each a massive dumps of cash on their disgustingly fat bankaccounts every month. How can they even
consider complaining about “people out there downloading their products illegaly, so we have some eeny-weeny dollars less”
DEATH TO ALL MAJOR CORPORATE BASTARDS AND LAW PERSONS WHO ARE PRO SUCH RAIDS
October 25th, 2007 at 11:27 am
If your looking for alternatives to Oink, try;
http://blog.buttermouth.com/2006/10/undiscovered-ways-to-get-free-music.html
October 25th, 2007 at 11:58 am
they win a battle but not the war, p2p forever, share, welcome to the future
October 25th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
sweden is safe…remember the reaction that happened when piratebay got raided?
October 25th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
I agree with search engines being used to find music. But a search engine spiders the internet looking for keywords that are on other sites. No one is uploading a file to google or others. I think they need to concentrate on the people that upload the actual files (original seeder) cause they would be the only ones to actually infringe the copyright.
I still would like to know what the diference would be between a music file and a picture. If I save a disney picture to my harddrive and upload the image and other people then download said image is that copyright infringment?
Ive had photos published before and had to give them waivers for how long they were able to have them published. Now if someone copied that picture cant I sue the individual for infringment? I still feel a torrent file is legal, so if the servers are full of torrent files then there should not be a charge of infringment.
A lot of the problems is there are legal sites and illegal sites how would you know the difference? I believe you shouldnt get introuble or sued by downloading. Being the original uploader then maybe. I have only uploaded one movie ever and that was because I few people wanted to watch it and you cant rent the dvd anymore and good luck trying to order it.
October 25th, 2007 at 11:10 pm
Just be a real man and buy your own entertainment. What, is that too hard for you, you girlie girl?