News sources here in the UK are reporting of another piracy site shut down by police, and its owner arrested. OiNK is a subscription-only site which shares pre-released music for a fee (never ‘eard of it meself, subtle name though). The man has been arrested “on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and infringement of copyright law”.
I have no qualms whatsoever in applauding such actions, I have no sympathy for subscription websites that charge for services that are never transferred to artists. The difference to cases such as TV-Links is evident. TV-Links and similar aggregators provide links to content hosted elsewhere, while services like OiNK host the content and charge for access to it.
Update: Apparently, news reports were wrong and OiNK is not a subscription service. I’m happy to admit when I’ve been wrong and withdraw the above comment.
4 Comments
Anonymous · October 24, 2007 at 11:41 pm
You're right about TVlinks but OiNK didn't charge a subscription fee. Membership was simply acquired on an invitation basis, also, OiNK was a torrent site, it's members hosted the files.
Carlos · October 25, 2007 at 6:39 am
Venía a postear lo mismo que Anónimo.Oink nunca fue un servicio de suscripción. Como cualquier otro tracker privado aceptaba donaciones, pero en ningún caso obligaba a sus usuarios a pagar por el servicio. El que quería hacía donaciones a través de Paypal.Tampoco es cierto que se especializaba en pre-releases. De que los había, sí, es cierto, pero en ningún caso alcanzaba siquiera el 10% del contenido ahí disponible.Lo sé porque fui usuario de Oink por un tiempo… hasta que mi ratio fue lamentable y me borraron la cuenta 😀
Anonymous · October 25, 2007 at 6:55 am
What an incredibly uninformed and misleading blog this is. So sadly typical of many bloggers. If you've got nothing useful or even accurate to say then why say it? It's a shame but we do seem in an age exemplifying the adage "empty vessels make the most noise".To straighten the record:1) Oink was not a subscription site. It was completely free.2) It did not host any content/music/files. All it did was point to the content/music/files (exactly like TVLinks in fact)3) The information in the police press release about pre-releases was misleading. In the years I've used Oink I've not ever seen any pre-releases.Now how about keeping quiet until you can contribute something useful or factual.
Andres Guadamuz · October 25, 2007 at 8:50 am
Thanks to all who have set me straight, as I mentioned, I had never heard of OiNK, and believed the news reports that it was a subscription service (which I thought it was). However, to the last anonymous person, you're free to trawl through previous posts in order to ascertain my accuracy. All of my posts are signed with my name, and I do not censor comments. Your anonymous opinion has been noted.