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Interpol Close OiNK Music Download Site

In huge operation...

Interpol Close OiNK Music Download Site
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OiNK, one of the world’s biggest sources of illegally downloaded music, has been shut down after an operation by Interpol.

The operation – which united British and Dutch police forces – came after the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) revealed that the members only download site had already leaked sixty pre-release albums this year.

Interpol raided properties in both England and Holland as part of the investigation - which resulted in an arrest of an IT worker at a house in Middlesbrough.

The twenty-four year old man is currently being held and questioned by police under the infringement of copyright law, as well as conspiracy to defraud, reports the BBC.

According to the IFPI, members were only allowed to join OiNK if they could prove that they had music that could be distributed within the membership.

A spokesperson said: "They were encouraged to distribute recordings in the torrent file format with other OiNK members, and have to keep posting such music to the site to maintain their membership.

"Once an album had been posted on the OiNK website, the users that download that music then passed the content to other websites, forums and blogs, where multiple copies were made.”

In order to maintain their membership, users were also asked to make voluntary donations to the site via credit card, a Cleveland Police spokesman said.

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  • See, people dismiss Interpol as mere Joy Division copyists, but they’ve really shown their muscle with this one...

    ~ by Rrrrr 10/23/2007

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  • :-( TV Links and now this. Load of bollocks. They’re doing it all wrong.

    ~ by doyouthinkhesawus 10/23/2007

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  • Maybe Interpol were angry that their new album was leaked.

    ~ by NornIron 10/23/2007

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    • its not the band interpol dummy its the police

      ~ by nelson 10/23/2007

    • The Police?

      ~ by Triples 10/23/2007

    • oink was great and interpol does suck, as for the band their awesome but the organization responsible for helping to shut down oink are a bunch of bastards!!!

      ~ by coolguy 10/26/2007

  • i know.. tv -links was the bollocks. now i am at a loss with my prison break happenings :( try this bad boy though, it may work out as a good replacement - www.alluc.org

    ~ by neil_hill_1 10/23/2007

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  • they never asked me to prove anything. ratio maintenance only baby. This is crap. Someone who would download then upload onto another site acted independently....

    ~ by Naxalite 10/23/2007

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  • Wow. This is shit man...

    ~ by imapirate 10/23/2007

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  • They asked for donations? Those ASSHOLES!

    ~ by Spug 10/23/2007

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  • FALSE! This is bullshit...I miss OiNK: According to the IFPI, members were only allowed to join OiNK if they could prove that they had music that could be distributed within the membership. A spokesperson said: ”They were encouraged to distribute recordings in the torrent file format with other OiNK members, and have to keep posting such music to the site to maintain their membership.

    ~ by Racketeer 10/23/2007

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    • it is bullshit! u didnt actually need to upload or ’distribute’ anything u just had to seed what u downloaded although uploading was faster..

      ~ by Dave 10/23/2007

  • So was the site distributing illegal music, or was it distributing .torrent files that point to illegal music.. i think there’s a clear distinction that the online news carriers are missing.

    ~ by jeffuk 10/23/2007

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  • ”In order to maintain their membership, users were also asked to make donations to site via credit card.” - This is simply untrue - donation was voluntary in order to help with server costs. At no point was membership ever reliant upon donation.

    ~ by exoink 10/23/2007

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  • Let’s all copy/paste from reuters, crappy journalists ftl.

    ~ by gamlinlarsen 10/23/2007

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  • There is nothign they can do to stop the mass sharing of media.... In this regard, anyone know of a good site to get my shit from now? haha

    ~ by scotty Swing 10/23/2007

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  • They don’t mean Interpol the band. Jesus...

    ~ by martinlk 10/23/2007

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  • You would think interpol might have more important things to do in this present political climate of terrorism and woe. Do the IFPI employ interpol, or do we the tax payers foot the bill?

    ~ by Well Done The Boys In Blue. 10/23/2007

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  • Good thing they caught Christopher Neal. It looks like they’re now going after some REAL criminals. </sarcasm>

    ~ by Ben 10/23/2007

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  • ”According to the IFPI, members were only allowed to join OiNK if they could prove that they had music that could be distributed within the membership.” - not true

    ~ by TMT is a wanker 10/23/2007

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  • It’s so funny the way ex-OiNKer’s are on here because they’ve lost their precious site. Get a life and BUY some music LEGALLY for a change!

    ~ by Bob 10/23/2007

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  • Bob, we want music for free, and Oinks is (was) the best place to get it. Now we’re sad.

    ~ by jacko 10/23/2007

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  • Bastards.

    ~ by OiNK forever! 10/23/2007

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  • Many false claims made about the site.

    ~ by goober 10/23/2007

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  • IMO oink was more helpful than harmful. I don’t know of any other site that makes it as easy to find new bands I like. Now I just won’t listen to as much music, and lesser known bands won’t be getting my money. Thanks for bringing these CRIMINALS to justice!

    ~ by Blah 10/23/2007

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  • 90% of this article isnt true... first of all, users werent ask to donate, donating just gave u priveleges on the site, and it was totally optional.. 2nd of all, it goes by invites.. nobody is asked if they have music to share and upload.. so stop with this nonsense!

    ~ by Sam 10/23/2007

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  • It’s a sad sad day. The ’losses’ made by this web site are $0.00 because nobody on this site will buy music ever again, there are too many file sharing possibilities.

    ~ by john F 10/23/2007

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  • ive heard pink floyd are about to shut down facebook.

    ~ by Apollo 10/23/2007

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  • Guys. There are 2 interpols. One of which is law enforcement organization. That being said, this article is wrong. You did not need to pay to upload or download, nor did you need to prove you had something to share. Donating to the site did not get you any ratio credit at all and you would still get banned for a bad ratio no matter how much you had donated. Not a money making scheme at all, which is probably why it had so much good music. A lot more than I can say for iTunes or whatever else

    ~ by nw 10/23/2007

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  • i honestly think sites like that bolstered music sales. call me kooky, but there is a large body of work out there, previews (in the form of .tor) help a buyer choose bands to support based on taste, not hype. oh well~

    ~ by spookychicken 10/23/2007

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  • What does this mean for the memebers other than they cant get music from that site anymore?

    ~ by DD 10/23/2007

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  • they did force people to do that stuff they jsut asked that u kept a decent share ratio

    ~ by dave 10/23/2007

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  • nw wrote: ”Guys. There are 2 interpols. One of which is law enforcement organization. That being said, this article is wrong. You did not need to pay to upload or download, nor did you need to prove you had something to share. Donating to the site did not get you any ratio credit at all and you would still get banned for a bad ratio no matter how much you had donated.....” WELL... now I understand why IFPI are acting LIARS. So any ideas how can we respond to this matter of

    ~ by Triples 10/23/2007

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  • ”According to the IFPI, members were only allowed to join OiNK if they could prove that they had music that could be distributed within the membership.” - did this load of bull generate from the reporter’s a-hole? ”and have to keep posting such music to the site to maintain their membership” - effing bullcrap!!! the vast majority didn’t post any music at all, only downloaded and seeded it! You better get your facts straight, Mister. This journalism re

    ~ by Ripley 10/23/2007

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  • Some people are bloody hyper-sensitive aren’t they! It was the IFPI that made the claims about Oink not this bloody news story - get a grip people!

    ~ by subversive 10/23/2007

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    • Yeah, and the reporter/reporters haven’t tried to chanllenge these claims, have they?

      ~ by Ripley 10/23/2007

  • so far every article I’ve read pertaining to this event has been grossly inaccurate. Journalism at it’s sensationalist bullshit best. Also, why are Interpol and the British and Dutch Governments wasting millions of pounds spending two years investigating this? Give the money to charity and close the site, don’t tit about. R.I.P Oink.

    ~ by Tony 10/23/2007

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  • you know something, people? this whole f&%$%#ng s%^t makes me spill my guts out.in my stupid mind i dream about a law that artists shouldnt sell their art,but doing it just for pleasure of art.if that would be possible,none of this would happend.but it’s only a dream

    ~ by speedy 10/23/2007

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    • Otherwise if the artists becoming a kind of hostages for cultural industry I probably quit buying their retail stuff at all. Just DGM’ stuff....maybe a little bit. Honestly, ladies & gens, anything new happens in music today??

      ~ by Triples 10/23/2007

  • Wow the media gets it wrong again!

    ~ by a 10/23/2007

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  • great..now i gotta BUY music! this SUCKS!!!!!!

    ~ by ann nonomus 10/23/2007

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  • i hope oink gets back online in time for their christmas uncounted download week. anyone wants an invite, ask me. damn the riaa, bpi and all the big music business who are the real abusers and exploiters of the musicians.

    ~ by chooseit40 10/23/2007

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  • BAD REPORTING was made by the BBC!! This site at least has the facts right. Oink led me to many new bands that I then paid money to see their live shows everytime they came around. I think this was a bad move by the record labels. I would never pay there $14.99 for a CD that it costs them cents to make. The artists aren’t hurt by sites like this, they are hurt by big record labels. I’ll miss oink.

    ~ by oink lover 10/24/2007

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