This Little Piggy Will OiNK No More
There was a false alarm around the time of Zeitgeist, but this time OiNK.cd seems to have met its match, disappointing bloggers, scoundrels, and fans of cute avatars worldwide. Via BBC:
A flat on Teesside and several properties in Amsterdam were raided as part of an Interpol investigation into the members-only website OiNK.According to Reuters, OiNK had just 180,000 members. But then each of those members has a blog. So OiNK was like internet piracy's Velvet Underground. Or something.The UK-run site has leaked 60 major pre-release albums this year alone, said the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).
A 24-year-old man from Middlesbrough was arrested on Tuesday morning.
Can't be long before the code for running your own OiNK pops up somewhere, right? We can have an informal meetup/support group somewhere. Just pick a bar in the comments and we'll plan.
Also worth noting: According to BBC, "The site's servers, based in Amsterdam, were seized in a series of raids last week." Soooo if you've downloaded anything in the last week...
Posted at 11:06 AM
bye bye ratio...
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My hard drive is gonna have a disappointing Christmas.
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time to buy a new hard drive and install everything and dump the old one, in case you get subpoena'd. or buy copies of your entire library.
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24-year-old man from Middlesbrough should've bought his own island.
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this may be the worst news i've ever read, but i'll feel better if everybody coughs up the sites worth hitting in the wake of oink. there was yahtzee, but that seems sort of down too. what else?
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good thing I live in Canada where file sharing is kinda-notreally-sorta legal.
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could individual users actually be targeted too? it seems ridiculous to think 180,000 people would have to worry...maybe just those who actually uploaded the prerelease torrents to the site or those who donated money? should everyone be shitting their pants??? i am...
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ohhh man oh man. unbelievable. what a loss. I am all about forming a support group; i'll need one once this really sets in. so much great music (and a lot of crap as well) that never would've graced my earholes were it not for the pig. and the major artists were such a small part of the site. so many unknowns and a ton of stuff that you can't even find nowadays (that world music selection was bonkers). srsly RIP
anyone else surprised how this seemed to come out of nowhere? wonder if Mr. Middlesborough expected it at all, or anybody else in the community. any legal armchair experts want to predict what they might charge this guy with, if it will stick, and the likelihood that they're going to come after me next? i'm familiar with the tactics of the RIAA. the IFPI and the BPI notsomuch.
from the site: "A criminal investigation continues into the identities and activities of the site's
users"
woooo scary stuff just in time for halloween
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how am i going to get billy corgan's seminal wankfest now?
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But now where will I leak all these Karen O demos that I found in the trash?!?!?!?!
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haha, fuckers! i didn't upload a single kilobyte. used up my 5GB of downloads and ran.
also- omg rip lol, etc.
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from the site: "A criminal investigation continues into the identities and activities of the site's
users"
woooo scary stuff just in time for halloween
Posted by: gaaaah at October 23, 2007 11:40 AM
Where did you see this quote?
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umm Luke...i saw it here: http://oink.cd/login.php
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Yeah that is scary....hadn't seen that when I looked at the site this morning.
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According to Reuters, "180,000 members" only refers to the number of people who have donated. I think the number of total users past/present is way huger. I'm still nervous, though, especially because I'm still seeding and I can't turn azureus off because I'm not at home. Maybe the IFPI are in my apartment right now!
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comcast users everywhere are suddenly a lot less pissed
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yeah go ahead and hit the login page often. Surely it won't log your IP as a user to come after...
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if you don't want to hit the login page, read about the message here:
http://torrentfreak.com/oink-investigation-seeks-identities-and-activities-of-users-071023/
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yeah I was a member a few months ago, but didn't upload so my account got deleted. Although I'm sure there are records of everyone whose ever been a member kept on the servers.
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my hard drive was getting too full anyhow...
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Tv-links.uk was shut down a few days ago as well. I wonder what site/service will be hit next.
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thanks jim, that article is about as reassuring as it gets in a situation like this i suppose.
anyways if they arrested even half of oink's members tomorrow, methinks many blogs would suddenly go silent. this one included
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Love the velvets reference. Totally apt.
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Tv-links.uk was shut down a few days ago as well. I wonder what site/service will be hit next.
WHAT!?!?! WHY DID I NOT SEE THIS!!!!
this is all just bad, bad, bad news. It's completely ridiculous. capitalist pigs.
someone post a non-sarcastic response as to why this is a victory? I can't seem to find anyone who would think so unless the money was taken directly from their pocket. tell me what bands are starving in the gutter [not on purpose] as a result of these file sharers. Completely obnoxious.
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The "servers seized in raids last week" thing is just FUD. Ignore it like you'd ignore any FUD tactics.
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Don't they know that everything is free now?
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Ummm. Should Oink'ers be worried?
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Turn On The Bright Lights was great, Antics less so and Our Love To Admire less so again. But this time Interpol really have stooped to a new low. Unforgivable.
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props to pitchfork for having the bravery to deem it an "illegal torrent website," as if its writers don't use it or anything. as if anyone would give a flying fuck about anything that site does without tons and tons of downloading from sites like oink. GOOD LUCK FINDING YOUR NEXT ARCADE FIRE, BROS.
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"props to pitchfork for having the bravery to deem it an "illegal torrent website," as if its writers don't use it or anything. "
correct. a certain editor's user name on soulseek was "fork" back in the day.
regardless, all the oink'ers are fleeing to libble and back to indietorrents again.
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These bogers that use(d) oink are the taste-makers of the internet. Without them freely downloading music (that bands can't afford to send to every blog) and writing about it, that band may have not been heard by a greater number of people. Oink was how I found out about a ton of bands, especially ones in rural areas that don't do a lot of touring (we all have hooks for hands, etc.) I miss you oink.
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These bogers that use(d) oink are the taste-makers of the internet. Without them freely downloading music (that bands can't afford to send to every blog) and writing about it, that band may have not been heard by a greater number of people. Oink was how I found out about a ton of bands, especially ones in rural areas that don't do a lot of touring (we all have hooks for hands, etc.)
If someone uploaded an album that sounded interesting from the review/band members/label, I'd click on the link to the band's page (almost always Myspace) and check out their songs (I had a tiny HD). I set up a few shows with bands from out of town that I found out about through Oink.
Damn it! I miss you Oink.
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Game over. I guess my ratio will never top my friends. I just can't believe it's gone. I feel like I've lost a child.
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do all us OiNK users go back to being "good" citizens and purchase music?
i highly doubt it. most likely only a matter of time before something equal rises to the top.
R.I.P OiNK....back to trolling blogs and the HypeMachine
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I'll find it really interesting to see the next spin they put on Oink having been shut down. Who will they go after??? Well, the guy who runs the site is probably the only one they can get and it really depends what they can get him on. I don't know British law but I'm sure it's not like he's gonna go away for decades or anything. Personally, I bet he'll come out of this as a bit of a modern Kevin Mitnick (sp?). That'd be kind of funny actually, since those who don't know praised Mitnick and those who actually knew his story were away how scummy he could be. Regardless, this is one of those stories that will go down in the annals of net history. And like so many have said prior, something new will be up soon enough. This is the only time I can think of though that a music site with such a devoted fanbase has been shut down. It'll be hard for anyone to follow up the infamy of Oink.
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What is oink? I've never heard of it. I repeat, I've never heard of it.
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I never got an invite to Oink. Now, having no friends is seeming like a wonderful thing.
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http://digg.com/music/Why_We_Need_OiNK
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alluc.org for movies and tv, if it still works
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found a good site:
http://groups.shareminer.com/
you can search the web, groups, and blogs for things that have been uploaded to various file sharing sites.
It's no oink but its what im gonna be using for now
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supposedly, as my technologically-advanced friend told me, it only logs your ip address if you uploaded stuff, not if you downloaded.
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I've never been a fan of the whole centralized site idea.
BitTorrent is better fractioned off into more than one site, organized together by a search engine.
Every BitTorrent user should upload to more than one site to protect themselves. If OiNK wasn't so self-serving then we wouldn't have lost so much now.
Not to mention, this site wasn't exactly a joy to use. Seeding after downloading was practically useless - the chances of someone downloading more than 50k from you were slim to none.
Bigger, less exclusive and egotistical sites like Demonoid have a much healthier and easier system. You download, seed for a day and you'll almost certainly have made up the ratio.
OiNK wasn't valuable - it's users were. As long as those users are smart enough to keep on going and upload to the rest of the web - we'll all be better off.
This is a good, good thing. The country club golf course just became open to all.
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you can also toy around with robinhoodofindiemusic.blogspot.com until a new elitist member-only torrent site comes to age...
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"The site’s servers, based in Amsterdam, were seized in a series of raids last week."
I was on the website yesterday?!?!
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I'm with Adam. The major repercussion of this for me is that I just have 180,000 fewer people to be jealous of.
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Does this mean no more Premature Evaluations?
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cool, moral debate. clearly was banned for poor ratio. the site stood for the purpose of sharing music, not for being an elitist regime. The reason it differentiated itself from sites like demonoid and pirate bay was because it had REQUIREMENTS... the people there not only enjoyed the music, but the QUALITY of the music.. and if you can't appreciate that then it's probably better that you lost your membership.
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This means a lot of things: who knows how many Pitchfork-launched artists wouldn't have broke without Oink? Oink was pretty sophisticated (compared to say, Napster), with a lot regulations, which I think narrowed its base to people who will download music one way or another. Therefore, shutting down Oink will just make it slightly more inconvenient for its users to get what they want. Hardly a deathblow though
The funny thing is that you know that every site that reports on this story within the next 2 days found out about it by going to USE Oink....sort of self-incriminating (or lamenting the personal loss of a useful utility IMO)
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Yeah its kind of funny, the music industry might have just hurt themselves a little bit by doing this. I don't how many users are going to be "scared straight"
Support local music too......
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FYI
http://oinkmemorial.blogspot.com/
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fuck i guess i will have to go back to use eMULE and Soulseek ....
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People went nuts for oink invites in last.fm... I remember there was even a group dedicated to people waiting and begging for invites.
I never realized how huge it was until I met one of the members. He was like Lord of free downloads...lol.
But it is yet another big loss.
I guess.
Kids are way too smart these days. Watch ina couple weeks...well have Oink v.2
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Oh, irony. Last night I met someone at the bar who was going to give me an invite. Boo hoo.
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BBC takes you on the raid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuwwMZKYxag
Gotta love that Winamp/Napster file footage!
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I really wish I had heard about this site beforehand. All those shitty quality albums from mininova and piratebay arent dont really cut it
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRaVhG-Mb_0&NR=1
The owner of the servers in amsterdam says he knew they were investigating illegal activity two months ago. I say he should have tipped off the OiNK guys.
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>"props to pitchfork for having the bravery to deem it an "illegal torrent website," as if its writers don't use it or anything" chris
Why would a media site like pitchfork even bother using torrent sites? Bands and Labels send them hundreds of promotional CDs per week hoping for a review. That's like saying they are sneaking into concerts instead of calling the band and asking to be put on the guest list. Just sayin'
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There is no doubt in my mind Pitchfork would not be where it is today w/o someone having been a member of Oink for AT LEAST the last 4+ years.
Since I've been reading Pitchfork before it actually made money, they couldn't get "bands and labels" to send them pre-release and promotional goods back in the humble beginnings.
I'm convinced Pitchfork wouldn't have become the capital of increasingly snotty taste-making that is has without the good graces of OiNK and its community.
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I recall a thread in the Music forum about In Rainbows and a post being made in anticipation of Pitchfork's review of the album. One of the posts said, "The rating will be a box and a question mark that when you click it says 'You decide'." or something very much along those lines. When the Pitchfork review came out, he was called out for predicting it, and the name of the reviewer had some significance and correlation to the poster's name that I don't recall at this point in time. To say that they didn't "need" accounts at these sites is debatable; however, to completely deny their membership is extremely naive, and downright stupid in my opinion. Don't convince yourself that these online blogs are so high and mighty.
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"cool, moral debate. clearly was banned for poor ratio."
Actually I wasn't banned - but I pretty much stopped using it. The best part about Oink was being able to know whether or not something had leaked yet.
OiNK was a necessity circa one to two years ago - but now, you can pretty much find anything on OiNK somewhere else.
That and it became such a pain in the ass to re-balance my ratio after downloading stuff that I tried every other source before resorting to Oink.
I'll bet you 20 bucks that any Oink user worth his salt first searched for a record on other sites before resorting to sacrificing precious ratio on a whim.
It was a great collection of music and a great set of standards to play by - but this doesn't mean it can't be done better and differently.
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This is a day that will live in infamy...
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"The best part about Oink was being able to know whether or not something had leaked yet."
--that was the best part for you? really? gosh you were really out of the loop on this one huh.
"OiNK was a necessity circa one to two years ago - but now, you can pretty much find anything on OiNK somewhere else."
--that's completely wrong. Oink was amazing precisely because of the opposite of this. besides the early releases of stuff with guaranteed HIGH QUALITY audio, i.e. no transcodes, there was endless amounts of rare and hard to find stuff. please tell me, at what other torrent site could i find the 3 albums of Thai 60's Pop that i got last week.
i feel like i have just come back down to earth after a sublime six months in music heaven. and it's an ugly place. i was trying to tell one of my friends about the site today, and he said "Have you heard of the Hype Machine? that's where I get a lot of stuff." and i almost started to cry.
but as somebody else said, probably for the best. my hard drive was getting full.
r.i.p. oink
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okay i didn't mean probably for the best. i can't believe i just said that. i must be in shock.
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Crap, I just lost my 8 accounts I had with Oink!
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To me, Oink was like being a trusting long-term monogamous relationship. The kind where condoms become optional. You knew you were getting high quality, non-fake, transcode free files at incredible download speeds to boot. Now its back to the world of Tijuana whorehouse torrents where clicking "download" off something like The Pirate Bay, feels like you just stuck your dong, unprotected, into the h00-hoo of some scabby 40 year old bordertown meth addict. You sit there hating yourself for being so dumb, crossing your fingers, hoping everything will be ok, swearing you'll never ever do something so dirty and unclean again.
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What I loved about it was how it was the greatest archive of music publicly available. If you searched for a classic Beatles album, there'd be 30 lossless versions of Sgt. Peppers. True audiophile versions of rare vinyl with quality superior to the half-assed remasters record labels released on CD.
EMI famously neglected the sound quality in their official releases and as such, fans made superior versions (like the Dr. Ebbets and MFSL vinyl rips). Oink was simply the best archive of digital music anywhere. Old Clash demos, rare live performances, copies of band's homemade first albums that never got distributed, etc.
Yes, it provided a way to get free versions of widely available popular albums, but it also archived and cataloged the last 50 years of music better than any other place on Earth. Many of which are not readily available for purchase anywhere. It was an excellent record of one field of human achievement and now its gone.
Take Fujiya and Miyagi's first album, "Electro Karaoke in the Negative Style". The local music store doesn't have it. Amazon doesn't have it. Even the band's own website links to an online store that says, "Sorry this title is permanently out of stock."
How about the Clash's "Vanilla Tapes" that were lost on a subway train 30 years ago? On Oink, but not in stores.
It was the digital music version of the burning of the Library at Alexandria.
They destroyed the greatest historical archive of rock so they could make a couple more bucks off Rhianna's "Umbrella".
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so, what now?
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http://tehpaine.blogspot.com/
Some official word...
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I got a lossless Dave Van Ronk Jug Band rip of a vinyl record off of Oink. It was not popular when it was released, it's not popular now and it probably will never be popular. But it got me to spend $50 on ebay for the record, I learned to play every song on the record and now I scower the calander looking for Jug-band shows. It's an unpopular record recorded in the 1960s that would never be released again but the 4 people that downloaded it this year love it. That's only one example. The RIAA has gotten it's blood from that jug band stone, Thanks oink.
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all of your comments are hilarious. its almost like everyone across the globe has completely denied that file "sharing" is stealing to the point that you all actually believe that it is not. you are stealing from the artists, you are stealing from the companies that brought them to you, and you are stealing from the people that work in the music business.
stop lying to yourselves. its just sad.
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torrents.to hasn't let me down yet...
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all of your comments are hilarious. its almost like everyone across the globe has completely denied that file "sharing" is stealing to the point that you all actually believe that it is not. you are stealing from the artists, you are stealing from the companies that brought them to you, and you are stealing from the people that work in the music business.
stop lying to yourselves. its just sad.
I'm reposting this for sheer entertainment purposes. One, creativity shouldn't be fueled by potential monetary gain. Two, record execs shouldn't be such greedy filth. Three, the first two points should go without saying, and I'm ashamed that I had to mention them. I'm glad you read over the various "exposure" posts that mentioned how much sites like OiNK contribute to helping an artist's career get off the ground. But, I suppose you could retort with, "There are advertisers and marketers for that!" Go America.
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all of your comments are hilarious. its almost like everyone across the globe has completely denied that VCR "taping" is stealing to the point that you all actually believe that it is not. you are stealing from the directors, you are stealing from the movie studios, and you are stealing from the people that work in the movie business.
stop lying to yourselves. its just sad.
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all of your comments are hilarious. its almost like everyone across the globe has completely denied that recording songs off the radio using "cassettes" is stealing to the point that you all actually believe that it is not. you are stealing from the artists, you are stealing from the companies that brought them to you, and you are stealing from the people that work in the music business.
stop lying to yourselves. its just sad.
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"You are stealing from the companies that brought them to you, and you are stealing from the people that work in the music business."
The funny part is, what other industry has a consumer base so clearly defining exactly what they want to the buisness, yet the best model for success they can come up with is litigation.
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"all your comments are hilarious"
You mean yours, as they seem to make up about 85% of the ones in this thread.
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guys, holler if you need Libble invites.
http://ilx.wh3rd.net/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?action=showall&boardid=44&threadid=1698
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