Arrested OiNK Uploaders’ Bail to be Extended
Written by enigmax on June 26, 2008The six individuals who are arrested for allegedly sharing music on the OiNK BitTorrent tracker, are due to report to police at the start of July. The five men and one woman, who are suspected of conspiring to defraud the music industry, will have their bail extended. Unsurprisingly, the police need more time to make their case.
On Friday 23rd May, three people were arrested by police, followed by another three on Wednesday 28th May. All six - five men aged between 19 and 33 and a 28-year-old woman - were arrested in the UK on suspicion of “Conspiracy to Defraud the Music Industry”, and other copyright offenses. It is alleged that the individuals were users of OiNK who uploaded music to other users in advance of its commercial release date.
Suspects were taken to their local police station for questioning and required to provide DNA samples and fingerprints. Sources close to those arrested confirm that most accusations relate to the uploading of a single album by each suspect but despite the fact that uploading music is not a crime in the UK if done for no profit, somehow this civil issue had been transformed into allegations of serious crime, with police paying close attention to donations the suspects made to the site, presumably in an effort to find some financial motive.
Rather than the organized crime ring, they were told to expect, the police ended up questioning six regular people, terrified and mortified at being in trouble with the police for the first time in their lives. Eventually all six were released, and bailed to report back to police on July 1st. Alan Ellis himself is due to report on the same date, after his bail was extended not just once, but three times already.
Sources close to case have informed TorrentFreak that those arrested will report to the police next Tuesday and told that their bail will be extended. They will be ordered to reappear before police on Monday 28th July. No reason will be given for the delay in either releasing or charging those accused, but it is likely to increase speculation that the evidence in the case isn’t anywhere near as strong or as damning as the police were led to expect.
Previously: Joss Stone: Piracy is Brilliant, Music Should be Shared
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44 Responses
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Well good for them; hopefully they’ll fare well in court, if they reach that point ;)
The british police strike again with the cunning and exactly case closing abilities. well done the boys in blue LOL!
Here’s hoping for a couple of more extensions… till its so old that its forgotten.
Wishful thinking… I know.
Best of luck guys!
yeah defrauding the music industry? That’s a sack of shit….if they don’t play along they might be convicted of defrauding the boys in blue…what has this world come to?
A disgrace - if I had not already stopped buying music industry products, this would sure do it! I can’t imagine why there’s not a worldwide boycott. Step on their air hose (revenue) and all this goes away instantly.
‘I can’t imagine why there’s not a worldwide boycott.’
People are too caught up in whatever it is they are doing to realize what the industry is doing. Or they’re lazy. It’s a shame, really. If only we had public service announcement about the matter, sort of like the anti-smoking campaign.
There’s not enough damning evidence.
Of course there’s not, they’ve hardly done a damn thing!
I wonder if OiNK will do a Demonoid and return from another country :)
Honestly, don’t the authorities in the UK have more pressing matters than to waste all this time and resources on 5 individuals who uploaded some music? Lets get our priorities in order here. Stop wasting taxpayers money on nonsense.
This whole matter is an absolute disgrace and casts a shadow on the UK legal system. I wonder how much police time and taxpayers money has been wasted on these charges trumped up by the mpaa and their various greedy hangers on. I hope that justice prevails and these unfortunate people will then sue for wrongful arrest, undue stress, loss of earnings etc etc. The whole affair is an outrage.
And then were expected to respect law enforcement.. hahaha..
Im so glad to know that instead of working on real crimes they are chasing file sharers..
Cheat on taxes? Its not cheating.. you just don’t fund morons.
This is what happen when too much power goes into the hands of the few… We got tyranny
We got injustice
Corrupt system run by bureacrates for their own selfish gain.
9, Apparently it’s more important that catching terrorists :s
“Conspiring to defraud the music industry” - can’t wait till they get laughed out of court.
I would actually see it as a honor to be charged with conspiracy to defraud the music industry.. I AM TRYING TO DEFRAUD THE MUSIC INDUSTRY.
Make no mistake, I will do anything I can to make them suffer, go bankrupt, get sued and disappear forever.
I would download a terabyte of music right now and delete it and start all over. I would go out on the streets and pass out burned albums for free.
The only people it hurts is the millionaires that did nothing or do not deserve the money, I work hard everyday just to be able to support my closet size apartment while fat f*cks smoke there cigars and count there money.
Death To Music Industry. DTMI
Conspiracy? Good God…it’s preposterous! I am still trying to somehow swallow this whole issue but I really can’t. They may have hoped that picking and punishing some random individuals would deter others from filesharing, but then they can’t even make the case…
This whole thing is as weak as it can get, really. I just feel sorry for those 6 innocent people who are treated like some criminals over something that has resulted in little to no social damage except maybe, ironically, a loss of respect for the police, like #11 pointed out.
I personally do not believe there can be anyway to truely convict these people.
I feel sorry for the fact they’ve now got their DNA in a database guarded by monkeys of IT ’specialists’ and we be kept wether they win or lose in court!
What a joke, this country is a complete mess…
Wait, so Alan’s bail was extended to the 28th as well?
@#8: love how demonoid has become a verb. :p
defraud - a deception made for personal gain.
Where exactly is the deception here. Nobody was deceived in any way, nobody believed that they were downloading legitimate copies of an album which then turned out to not be so.
It doesn’t seem right to keep extending bail. The constant fear of not knowing what to expect isn’t justice.. it’s more like torture. How can anyone make plans to get on with life with criminal charges hanging over them? Prosecute them or don’t, but don’t keep messing with them.
Good luck everyone.
DNA samples…
“I can’t imagine why there’s not a worldwide boycott.”
Actually there is but it is growing slowly although steadily.
The boycott started after the Napster shutdown slowly, accelerated greatly after the begining of the RIAA extortion campain and have keep growing steadily since then.
We make great progress with the boycott when something particularly outrageous occurs such as the Jennie trial verdict.
We are at a point where a very large number of people will no longer look for compromise and want the current music and entertainement industry
DEAD!
Period.
This outcome is near as the boycott keep growing and more and more artists walk away from the music parasites to operate on their own.
In truth, you can’t step on these folks “air hose” as long as you’re paying attention to their music. They’re just playing both ends– do you really think the big labels don’t know you’re just taking the burden off their advertising budget by sharing? They’re being realistic– and figure they might as well get paid twice! Once when someone goes to concerts, and once when someone settles in court. The real way to kill this shit is to start moving away from corporate bullshit music. Otherwise, you’re just giving them time to adjust to this new business model. To hell with Joss Stone, etc– move on, folks! There’s a much better world of music out there.
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