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{{Infobox Website |
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| name = Oink's Pink Palace (OiNK) |
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| logo = [[Image:OiNK 2.png|200px]] |
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| screenshot = [[Image:OiNK.cd frontpage screenshot - 10.18.2007.png|200px]] |
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| caption = OiNK.cd frontpage (logged in) on October 18, 2007 |
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| url = http://oink.cd/ |
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| type = [[Torrent Tracker#Private_Trackers|Private Torrent Tracker]] |
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| registration = Free, Invitation Only |
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| owner = Alan Ellis (aka OiNK) |
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| author = OiNK (Modified [[TBSource]]) |
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| launch date = May 30, 2004<ref>Oink.me.uk, May 30, 2006, [http://web.archive.org/web/20060613042533/http://oink.me.uk/ Happy birthday to us]</ref> |
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| current status = Tracker forcibly shut down |
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| revenue = Optional donations |
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}} |
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'''OiNK's Pink Palace''' (frequently written as '''OiNK''') was a prominent [[BitTorrent tracker]] located at [http://oink.cd/ Oink.cd] (previously [http://oink.me.uk/ Oink.me.uk]), which operated from May 30, 2004 until October 23, 2007, when it was shut down by police. Copyright agencies described Oink as an online pirate pre-release music club; former users described it as one of the world's largest and most meticulously maintained online music repositories<ref name=wired>{{cite web | url = http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/news/2007/10/oink | title = Oink Users Recall Defunct Song-Swap Site's Strange, Stringent Rules | publisher = [[Wired]] | accessdate = 2007-10-27}}</ref>. About a month before the shut-down, music magazine [[Blender (magazine)|Blender]] selected OiNK's creator, the British Alan Ellis, to their ''The Powergeek 25 — the Most Influential People in Online Music'' list.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.blender.com/guide/articles.aspx?ID=2752 | title = |
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The Powergeek 25 — the Most Influential People in Online Music | publisher = [[Blender (magazine)|Blender]] | accessdate = 2007-10-28}}</ref> |
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The site was an [[invitation system|invitation-only]] [[BitTorrent]] community, with a membership of around 180,000<ref name="ifpi" /> members at the time of closure; though only around 80,000 were regularly active.{{Fact|date=October 2007}} The site's rules included a strict policy that users could not pay for membership, required minimum upload/download ratios, and a requirement that all [[Avatar (icon)|avatars]] had to be [[cute]]. <ref name=wired /> Its userbase included music professionals, such as [[Trent Reznor]] of [[Nine Inch Nails]].<ref>{{cite web | url= http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/10/trent_reznor_and_saul_williams.html | title = Trent Reznor and Saul Williams Discuss Their New Collaboration, Mourn OiNK | publisher = [[New York (magazine)|New York]] | accessdate = 2007-10-31}}</ref> |
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Content of the site was mainly oriented around sharing music albums in strictly quality controlled [[MP3]] and [[FLAC]] formats (along with most other formats such as [[Ogg|OGG]] and [[M4A]]) with good [[meta data]], but also offered other files such as [[e-book]]s, software and e-learning videos.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://web.archive.org/web/*/oink.me.uk/rules.php | title = Oink.me.uk / Uploading rules | publisher = Oink's Pink Palace / [[Internet Archive]] | accessdate = 2007-10-26}}</ref> |
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<!-- commented out as a trivia note - can be added back if better integrated into the flow: |
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On [[2007-06-20]], [[TechCrunch|CrunchGear]] reported that [[Apple]]'s [[Worldwide Developers Conference|WWDC]] [[Mac OS X v10.5|Leopard Beta]] had been leaked onto OiNK. <ref>{{cite web | url = http://crunchgear.com/2007/06/20/wwdc-leopard-beta-leaked-onto-bittorrent-site | title = WWDC Leopard Beta Leaked Onto BitTorrent Site | publisher = [[TechCrunch|CrunchGear]] | accessdate = 2007-10-28}}</ref>--> |
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==Shutdown and media response== |
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[[Image:Oinkclosure.jpg|thumb|left|Oink's main page immediately after closure.]] |
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On [[October 23]], [[2007]] the site was shut down by [[Interpol]], [[International Federation of the Phonographic Industry]] (IFPI), [[British Phonographic Industry]] (BPI), and other organizations in an investigation codenamed ''Operation Ark Royal''. |
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<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/oct/24/piracy.crime | title = Police shut down website after two-year music piracy inquiry | publisher = [[Guardian]] | accessdate = 2007-10-25}}</ref> As a part of the shut down British police arrested Oink's creator Alan Ellis, and in Amsterdam dutch police confiscated Oink's hosting service company NForce's servers. |
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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.<ref name="ifpi" >{{cite web | url = http://www.ifpi.org/content/section_news/20071023.html | title = British and Dutch police raids shut down the world's largest pre-release pirate music site | publisher = [[IFPI]] | accessdate = 2007-10-23}}</ref> The shutdown was covered in media worldwide mainly based on IFPI, BPI and Cleveland Police's press releases and original BBC news footage of the arrest of Oink creator Alan Ellis. |
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In the days following the arrest, when news sources like [[Wired]],<ref name=wired /> [[Guardian]],<ref>{{cite web | url = http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/10/24/time_to_clear_up_the_murk_about_oink.html | title = Time to clear up the murk about OiNK | publisher = [[Guardian]] | accessdate = 2007-10-26}}</ref> and [[Slyck]]<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.slyck.com/story1608_Myths_and_Facts_of_OiNKs_Takedown | title = Myths and Facts of OiNK's Takedown | publisher = [[Slyck]] | accessdate = 2007-10-26}}</ref> started fact checking based on internet sources<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.rlslog.net/rip-oink/ | title = Rip-oink! - Comment of how BBC should be neutral and first detailed writing about errors in mainstream media | publisher = [[Releaselog]] | accessdate = 2007-10-24}}</ref>, it was revealed that not everything reported in the mainstream media was entirely correct. Common errors quoted by media were: that Oink was an extremely lucrative website and made hundreds of thousands of pounds <ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.cleveland.police.uk/news_resources/press_releases/071023_OperationArkRoyal.htm| title = Operation Ark Royal | publisher = [[Cleveland Police]] | accessdate = 2007-10-26}}</ref> from "donations", which users had to pay to be able to download; that users had to offer new content to the site in order to get invitations;<ref>{{cite web | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/uk_news/england/tees/7057812.stm | title = Huge pirate music site shut down (version of 23.10.2007, 10:57 GMT) | publisher = [[BBC]] | accessdate = 2007-10-27}}</ref> and that the site was centered around the release of prereleased material.<ref name="ifpi" /> The first two claims clearly conflicted with site's written rules and conventions. A counter argument for the third was that only tiny portion of site's content were pre-released material. [[TechCrunch]] wrote that while links to pre-release albums definitely appeared on OiNK early it was unlikely that the site's members were actually responsible for these releases and claim this shows how poorly [[the scene]] is understood.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/24/copyright-news-oink-and-tv-links-down-demonoid-back-up/| title = Copyright News: Oink and Tv-Links Down, Demonoid Back Up | publisher = [[TechCrunch]] | accessdate = 2007-10-29}}</ref> |
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On [[October 27]], [[2007]], the homepages of both the oink.cd and oink.me.uk domains were replaced with an image of syrup and waffles, and a link to a [[Google]] search for [http://www.google.com/search?q=%22what+to+use+instead+of+oink%22 "What to use instead of OiNK"] which brings up a blog post by BrokeP of [[The Pirate Bay]]. |
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==Pirate Parties' response== |
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[[Image:The OiNK Top 10.jpg|thumb|OiNK's ''top 10 most active torrents'' music at 6 April 2007, from [[Idolator]]]] |
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Soon after the site's closure, the British and Dutch Pirate Parties issued a joint statement<ref name="pparty">{{cite web | url = http://piratepartyuk.org/press_releases/UK-NL_statement_oink.pdf | title = Dutch and British Parties Question Legality and Ethics of Oink Take-Down | publisher = Pirate Party of the United Kingdom (UK) | accessdate = 2007-10-25}}</ref> condemning the actions as retaliatory, questioning the ethics of choreographing it and letting representatives of the alleged victims participate in the investigation. |
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==References== |
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{{reflist}} |
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==External links== |
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*[http://oink.cd oink.cd] |
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*[http://web.archive.org/web/*/http%3A//oink.me.uk/ Oink.me.uk] in Internet Archive (archives dated between 26.7.2004 - 6.4.2007) |
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*[http://tehpaine.blogspot.com/ tehpaine.blogspot.com] - Oink aftermath blog by somebody claims to be OiNK staff member Paine. |
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'''Press releases''' |
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* 23.10.2007 [http://www.cleveland.police.uk/news_resources/press_releases/071023_OperationArkRoyal.htm Cleveland Police: Operation Ark Royal] |
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* 23.10.2007 [http://www.bpi.co.uk/index.asp?Page=news/press/news_content_file_1104.shtml The BPI: British and Dutch police raids shut down the world's largest pre-release pirate music site] |
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* 23.10.2007 [http://www.ifpi.org/content/section_news/20071023.html IFPI: British and Dutch police raids shut down the world's largest pre-release pirate music site] |
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'''News coverage''' |
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* 23.10.2007 [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/tees/7057812.stm Huge pirate music site shut down] from [[BBC News Online]] |
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* 23.10.2007 [http://youtube.com/watch?v=QuwwMZKYxag News item on the shutdown from BBC News] from [[YouTube]] |
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* 23.10.2007 [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Nc8myW_F58 Campus.tv interview of Pieter Task of NForce, hosting provider of oink.cd] |
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* 23.10.2007 [http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071023-police-ifpi-make-bacon-of-oink-bittorrent-tracker.html Police, IFPI make bacon of OiNK BitTorrent tracker] from [[Ars Technica]] |
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* 24.10.2007 [http://www.pastemagazine.com/action/article/5575/news/music/squeals_of_oink_lovers_reverberate_across_the_internet Squeals of OiNK lovers reverberate across the Internet] from [[Paste (magazine)|Paste magazine]] |
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* 25.10.2007 [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/25/ninternet125.xml An interview with the site's founder] from [[The Daily Telegraph|Telegraph]]. |
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'''Internet commentary''' |
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* 23.10.2007 [http://www.negrophonic.com/2007/defending-the-pig-oink-croaks/ Mudd up! Defending the pig - Oink croaks] — Writer & musician [[DJ /rupture|Jace Clayton]] explains what Oink was |
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* 24.10.2007 [http://www.demonbaby.com/blog/2007/10/when-pigs-fly-death-of-oink-birth-of.html When Pigs Fly: The Death of Oink, the Birth of Dissent, and a Brief History of Record Industry Suicide] — Commentary on Oink in relation to the music industry from an insider |
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* 27.10.2007 [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av5HDyLL_VY Stationary Hund - The OiNK Song] from Youtube |
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{{BitTorrent}} |
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[[Category:BitTorrent websites]] |
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[[Category:Defunct websites]] |
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[[fi:OiNK]] |
Revision as of 08:21, 1 November 2007
File:OiNK 2.png | |
Type of site | Private Torrent Tracker |
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Owner | Alan Ellis (aka OiNK) |
Created by | OiNK (Modified TBSource) |
Revenue | Optional donations |
URL | http://oink.cd/ |
Registration | Free, Invitation Only |
OiNK's Pink Palace (frequently written as OiNK) was a prominent BitTorrent tracker located at Oink.cd (previously Oink.me.uk), which operated from May 30, 2004 until October 23, 2007, when it was shut down by police. Copyright agencies described Oink as an online pirate pre-release music club; former users described it as one of the world's largest and most meticulously maintained online music repositories[2]. About a month before the shut-down, music magazine Blender selected OiNK's creator, the British Alan Ellis, to their The Powergeek 25 — the Most Influential People in Online Music list.[3]
The site was an invitation-only BitTorrent community, with a membership of around 180,000[4] members at the time of closure; though only around 80,000 were regularly active.[citation needed] The site's rules included a strict policy that users could not pay for membership, required minimum upload/download ratios, and a requirement that all avatars had to be cute. [2] Its userbase included music professionals, such as Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails.[5]
Content of the site was mainly oriented around sharing music albums in strictly quality controlled MP3 and FLAC formats (along with most other formats such as OGG and M4A) with good meta data, but also offered other files such as e-books, software and e-learning videos.[6]
Shutdown and media response
On October 23, 2007 the site was shut down by Interpol, International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), British Phonographic Industry (BPI), and other organizations in an investigation codenamed Operation Ark Royal. [7] As a part of the shut down British police arrested Oink's creator Alan Ellis, and in Amsterdam dutch police confiscated Oink's hosting service company NForce's servers.
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.[4] The shutdown was covered in media worldwide mainly based on IFPI, BPI and Cleveland Police's press releases and original BBC news footage of the arrest of Oink creator Alan Ellis.
In the days following the arrest, when news sources like Wired,[2] Guardian,[8] and Slyck[9] started fact checking based on internet sources[10], it was revealed that not everything reported in the mainstream media was entirely correct. Common errors quoted by media were: that Oink was an extremely lucrative website and made hundreds of thousands of pounds [11] from "donations", which users had to pay to be able to download; that users had to offer new content to the site in order to get invitations;[12] and that the site was centered around the release of prereleased material.[4] The first two claims clearly conflicted with site's written rules and conventions. A counter argument for the third was that only tiny portion of site's content were pre-released material. TechCrunch wrote that while links to pre-release albums definitely appeared on OiNK early it was unlikely that the site's members were actually responsible for these releases and claim this shows how poorly the scene is understood.[13]
On October 27, 2007, the homepages of both the oink.cd and oink.me.uk domains were replaced with an image of syrup and waffles, and a link to a Google search for "What to use instead of OiNK" which brings up a blog post by BrokeP of The Pirate Bay.
Pirate Parties' response
Soon after the site's closure, the British and Dutch Pirate Parties issued a joint statement[14] condemning the actions as retaliatory, questioning the ethics of choreographing it and letting representatives of the alleged victims participate in the investigation.
References
- ^ Oink.me.uk, May 30, 2006, Happy birthday to us
- ^ a b c "Oink Users Recall Defunct Song-Swap Site's Strange, Stringent Rules". Wired. Retrieved 2007-10-27.
- ^ "The Powergeek 25 — the Most Influential People in Online Music". Blender. Retrieved 2007-10-28.
- ^ a b c "British and Dutch police raids shut down the world's largest pre-release pirate music site". IFPI. Retrieved 2007-10-23.
- ^ "Trent Reznor and Saul Williams Discuss Their New Collaboration, Mourn OiNK". New York. Retrieved 2007-10-31.
- ^ "Oink.me.uk / Uploading rules". Oink's Pink Palace / Internet Archive. Retrieved 2007-10-26.
- ^ "Police shut down website after two-year music piracy inquiry". Guardian. Retrieved 2007-10-25.
- ^ "Time to clear up the murk about OiNK". Guardian. Retrieved 2007-10-26.
- ^ "Myths and Facts of OiNK's Takedown". Slyck. Retrieved 2007-10-26.
- ^ "Rip-oink! - Comment of how BBC should be neutral and first detailed writing about errors in mainstream media". Releaselog. Retrieved 2007-10-24.
- ^ "Operation Ark Royal". Cleveland Police. Retrieved 2007-10-26.
- ^ "Huge pirate music site shut down (version of 23.10.2007, 10:57 GMT)". BBC. Retrieved 2007-10-27.
- ^ "Copyright News: Oink and Tv-Links Down, Demonoid Back Up". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2007-10-29.
- ^ "Dutch and British Parties Question Legality and Ethics of Oink Take-Down" (PDF). Pirate Party of the United Kingdom (UK). Retrieved 2007-10-25.
External links
- oink.cd
- Oink.me.uk in Internet Archive (archives dated between 26.7.2004 - 6.4.2007)
- tehpaine.blogspot.com - Oink aftermath blog by somebody claims to be OiNK staff member Paine.
Press releases
- 23.10.2007 Cleveland Police: Operation Ark Royal
- 23.10.2007 The BPI: British and Dutch police raids shut down the world's largest pre-release pirate music site
- 23.10.2007 IFPI: British and Dutch police raids shut down the world's largest pre-release pirate music site
News coverage
- 23.10.2007 Huge pirate music site shut down from BBC News Online
- 23.10.2007 News item on the shutdown from BBC News from YouTube
- 23.10.2007 Campus.tv interview of Pieter Task of NForce, hosting provider of oink.cd
- 23.10.2007 Police, IFPI make bacon of OiNK BitTorrent tracker from Ars Technica
- 24.10.2007 Squeals of OiNK lovers reverberate across the Internet from Paste magazine
- 25.10.2007 An interview with the site's founder from Telegraph.
Internet commentary
- 23.10.2007 Mudd up! Defending the pig - Oink croaks — Writer & musician Jace Clayton explains what Oink was
- 24.10.2007 When Pigs Fly: The Death of Oink, the Birth of Dissent, and a Brief History of Record Industry Suicide — Commentary on Oink in relation to the music industry from an insider
- 27.10.2007 Stationary Hund - The OiNK Song from Youtube