( . . ) OiNK Status ( . . )
The Day The Music Died
A sad day for music lovers everywhere, as British and Dutch authorities have shut down the torrent tracking website [10.23.07] OiNK’s Pink Palace, said to be the world’s largest source of pre-release music albums. The English admin was arrested Tuesday and the servers based in Amsterdam were seized. A supposed investigation into the “identities and activities” of the site’s users was being conducted, although it’s now unlikely anything will come from this, as it seems logs were rarely kept and passwords were saved as hashes (see IRC transcript with admin below). The domain was hacked and defaced with IFPI and BPI logos, with a message of guilt. The story was picked up by lots, including MTV and Rolling Stone, slightly distorted, unsurprisingly. DJ Rupture, a New York-based producer and DJ, gave his two cents about the matter in a blog post. An interview with OiNK.cd host provider can be seen here, as well as the official BBC video report here. The BBC clip shows arrest footage and authorities making claims of admin downloading [sic] pre-release albums onto the website to share, displaying a complete lack of understanding of BitTorrent. Also, the word “subscription” was used, when in fact, only donations were accepted, for server costs. Profit from pirated material was not promoted, and users were in fact banned for trying to sell their invites. A former OiNK user made quite an elaborate post on the matter.
***[WHERE ARE THEY NOW?] Admin has now been released and gave us some answers via IRC and to the Telegraph. OiNK staff have kept us updated when possible. Users and staff have gathered to IRC and an unofficial forum. The future of the tracker is currently unknown, although the servers were in fact backed up. Please stay tuned for more updates. Keep in mind that former OiNK staff is not associated with donation funds or any current site.
***[NEWEST UPDATE] The Pirate Bay have plans for a Boink.cd tribute tracker, although it will be public and will not include the old database. Speaking with former OiNK.cd Admin briefly about the matter, I asked if he’d had a chance to speak with TPB staff about this. “Of course,” he replied. “I’ve been talking to them all day… I told them I didn’t approve.” OiNK staff seem to share the same view, as Boink standards are not up-to-par with OiNK.cd.
kids, avoid RIAA-affiliated music &
protect yourself from unfriendly IPs with PeerGuardian.
Radiohead – Towering Above The Rest [24cd b-side bootleg]
(new links in comments)
///deek_media 
