British & Dutch Authorities Shutter OiNK – Members Only File Sharing Network
After a two-year investigation, British and Dutch police shut down OiNK, a member’s only file-sharing site thatt specialized in pre-release albums. An estimated 180,000 members paid a membership donation via debit or credit cards for OiNK’s catalog of music and other media. Prerelease leaks have become one of the most damaging forms of piracy for the music industry, which relies on marketing hype to create demand for new releases.
Industry experts claim that OiNK was central to the illegal distribution of prerelease music online and allege the site had more than 60 albums on their servers before their release this year alone.
The raids in Amsterdam and the northeast English city of Middlesbrough only resulted in the arrest of one person. British police said they collared a 24-year-old man on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and infringement of copyright law. Dutch police seized servers and other computer equipment.
