And so the first dawn fades on an OiNK-less day. Chances are you're already privy and in full mourning, but here's the news for those of you who couldn't care less: Early yesterday morning, British police raided the home of a Middlesbrough man, lugged his computer equipment away in plastic bags, and threw him in the pokey. Why? The 24-year-old IT worker, known at this point only as "Alan" (not me, I promise), was the administrator of OiNK.cd (previously OiNK.me.uk), a private bittorrent tracker site notorious for supplying quality-controlled leaks and pre-release albums to pirates lucky enough to hold memberships. Boasting 180,000 members and about a bajillion music and software torrents, OiNK was considered by most to be the ultimate invite-only torrent community. Practically anything--even some pretty obscure stuff--could be found and had within a matter of minutes (or, you know, so we hear). But like the days of Napster, you figured it was only a matter of time...
Following a two-year investigation by Interpol (not that Interpol), IFPI and BPI put the smackdown on the site in a hot minute, and those logging on yesterday hoping to find--oh, who knows, I'm just guessing here--the newest uploads or the top ten most transferred torrents in the last 24 hours were greeted instead with an ominous 90s-looking splash page reading, "This site has been closed as a result of a criminal investigation by IFPI, BPI, Cleveland Police and the Fiscal Investigation Unit of the Dutch Police (FIOD ECD) into suspected illegal music distribution. A criminal investigation continues into the identities and activities of the site's users." That's right--Dutch police. The site's servers, located in Amsterdam, were also confiscated. Meanwhile, in other parts of England and the Netherlands, the unwashed music-deprived masses murder each other and construct pipe bombs in red district flats.
In the hours following the raids, critical backlash and memorial sites cropped up on the Internet. Then there's the collective click of long-forgotten Soulseek and Limewire connections being fired up again. "Alan" has since been released from custody. By the way, that "criminal investigation" into the "identities and activities" of OiNK's users? Don't even trip. Word is, OiNK's user database was encrypted and equipped with a "self-destruct" type of mechanism. In completely unrelated news, stay tuned to Mas Sexi for more tunes. And in the spirit of that, please accept the following song. It's a good one.
MP3: Elvin Bishop - "Fooled Around and Fell in Love"
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