OiNK under investigation as arrests are made.

[crazzyyfool]

British and Dutch police have shut down one of the world's biggest sources of illegally-downloaded music.

A flat on Teesside and several properties in Amsterdam were raided as part of an Interpol investigation into the members-only website OiNK.

The UK-run site has leaked 60 major pre-release albums this year alone, said the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).

Source: BBC News

[rounds]

I'm gutted :(

[spikey_richie]

Gutted because you're going to have to put your hand in your pocket to buy a CD/download from iTunes?

Or gutted because you're going to have to find another illegal site to steal through?

[duntkno]

speechless...

[Colin-uk Veteran]

I always find it interesting to see the people behind such popular sites. instead of it being some big corporation, its just some guy in a flat with a server lol.

[ZombieFly]

ah ****! :crazy:

next soulseek will go, then we're flat out of music preview services! :(

Edited October 23, 2007 by ZombieFly

[edgarf28]

nooooo.................. :cry: :o

[Rob2687]

The humanity...

[TheDogsBed]

Warms my heart to see another common thieving ******* caught.

[troist]

Such a shame :( OiNK was such a good site for rare/lossless music.

The IFPI's report on the catchings is so exaggerated, they make it sound like OiNK's members are part of an uber underground hacking movement trying to take over the world... heres a link:

http://www.ifpi.org/content/section_news/20071023.html

[Lee G. Veteran]

I never used OiNK, but I could see something like this would happen soon.

[rounds]

Gutted because you're going to have to put your hand in your pocket to buy a CD/download from iTunes?

Or gutted because you're going to have to find another illegal site to steal through?

The second one.

[duntkno]

The second one.

well said.

im sure everyone knows, this doesn't stop anything, another private site will grow and become just as big. their were already like 5 decent ones right behind oink.

[divinatum]

:/ :wilted_rose:

So long OiNK. :cry:

[ZombieFly]

Warms my heart to see another common thieving ******* caught.

OiNK was different. I used it mainly for impossible to find out of production titles, which you can't generally buy anywhere. The hardcore of the OiNK userbase are/were generally audiophiles who generally spend money on music as well as sharing. Once again destroy a site while the industry offers nothing to fill the gap. Now give me a legal service to download rare back catalogue titles and i'll willingly pay.

[spikey_richie]

The second one.

At least you're honest :)

[Lee G. Veteran]

It seems like I should have signed up to this site then :cry:

[spikey_richie]

OiNK was different. I used it mainly for impossible to find out of production titles, which you can't generally buy anywhere. The hardcore of the OiNK userbase are/were generally audiophiles who generally spend money on music as well as sharing. Once again destroy a site while the industry offers nothing to fill the gap. Now give me a legal service to download rare back catalogue titles and i'll willingly pay.

Not sure what type of music you're looking for, but these guys have a good back-catalogue http://www.htfr.com/

[edgarf28]

and don't forget it was a great site for mac apps! :(

[DrunkenMaster]

OiNK was different. I used it mainly for impossible to find out of production titles, which you can't generally buy anywhere. The hardcore of the OiNK userbase are/were generally audiophiles who generally spend money on music as well as sharing. Once again destroy a site while the industry offers nothing to fill the gap. Now give me a legal service to download rare back catalogue titles and i'll willingly pay.

I don't entirely agree with downloading music. OTOH, I empathize with your need to find out-of-production titles. There are more than a dozen CDs I've been trying to find for several years now. One is on Amazon for $100 or so - whereas it should be $15. I think the industry should do more to make available its older CDs for sale - something it has blatantly ignored. Buying used also means artist doesn't get royalties.

[rounds]

well said.

im sure everyone knows, this doesn't stop anything, another private site will grow and become just as big. their were already like 5 decent ones right behind oink.

The problem is, the other popular/good sites either offer only RIAA safe material (Such as Indietorrents), or scene releases.

For those of us that like getting out of production or very rare music aswell as new music, I don't think there is any other like OiNK. Public sites won't do, because like most other OiNK users, I like music in certain formats/quality.

[joyntkid]

Yeah, OiNK really was different from other torrent sites.

The community was really awesome, and most of the main users bought music and always told people to buy stuff.

Will definitely be missed, source of a lot of realllly good music.

And yes, I download lots of music. Bash me all you want, but i've only bought maybe 10 albums in the past 2 years.

[ZombieFly]

Not sure what type of music you're looking for, but these guys have a good back-catalogue http://www.htfr.com/

thanks, i've just run some searches on there for my most recent OiNK uploads. I'm mainly into electronic music circa 1980-1999.

Unfortunately none of the titles are available to buy on htfr, but i'll keep it bookmarked for future searches.

Here's an example of why i used OiNK in the first place.

I was looking through some reviews on discogs of an artist called LA Synthesis. These guys were putting out UK techno back in 1996. I own some of their releases on Vinyl. I tried to find their cd, "matrix surfer" on all the usual media store sites, but none had it. Found 1 copy on discogs through the "for sale" section, guy wanted ?45. I emailed him and asked if he'd accept ?20 but he refused, which is fair enough. So, what to do? pay ?45 for a cd album or download from OiNK?, well, i downloaded it as my attempts to buy it had failed. I've done this a lot, mainly to replace old vinyl titles as i don't have a record deck these days.

I despair, when will the corrupt record industry fail? They've been ripping the public off worldwide now for decades. It's time it stopped, TBH

[McoreD]

I wonder what is gonna happen to the OiNK community. :(

[Samboini]

ah ****! :crazy:

next soulseek will go, then we're flat out of music preview services! :(

Preview, yeah. Keep telling yourself that.

well said.

im sure everyone knows, this doesn't stop anything, another private site will grow and become just as big. their were already like 5 decent ones right behind oink.

And one by one each of you will all get put away for quite a while. I won't shed a single tear, ha!