This little piggy got shut down
 

Well, it was only a matter of time, I suppose, before the infiltration of private bittorrent sites commence.

Huge pirate music site shut down

British and Dutch police have shut down a "widely-used" source 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).
A 24-year-old man from Middlesbrough was arrested on Tuesday morning.

_________

British police arrested the site owner, his server in the Netherlands were seized by Dutch Police. Sucks to be those members who've given them huge sums, doesn't it?

Hmmmm.

I once obtained an invitation to OiNK in an attempt to acquire a better filesharing source. However, I found much of the OiNK community to be elitists and their standards absurdly stringent. It seemed that in order to download anything from OiNK, you first had to upload or make available twice as much. And heaven forbid you have basic procedural questions; their FAQs seemed quite unforgiving of people who weren't already experts at creating torrents.

I spent a week reading through the OiNK guides, lurking and studying the patterns of established users. In the end, I didn't like what I saw, an elite cadre of audiophiles who cast a disapproving glare at the music community from within the high walls of their precious, precious ivory tower. Yes, OiNK was a good site for acquiring high quality albums at the earliest moment of opportunity, but the internet benefits from trickle-down theory like nothing else can; I could wait.

I'm not truly sad to see OiNK go. Their place will be assumed by another cackling heap of elitists, I'm sure. But I'm amused by the fervent attempts by Interpol and others to put the damper on technological progress. Eventually, the music industry will understand that technology has outmoded 90% of their business practices. Until then, I'll just continue laughing.

When did you get an invite then? I joined half a year ago, and their rules really weren't that strict, no uploading needed until you had downloaded 5GB, and after that you had pretty low ratio requirements (I believe 0.20 between 5GB and 10GB). They did get stricter if you wanted to change to a power user, but since I already had basically all that I needed, I saw no need for going that far. As far as the community goes, I was never really involved, maybe uploaded a few torrents, but I was more of a leecher, so I don't really know how elitist they were.

I for one am very sad to see Oink go, since it was my number one source for belgian artists (you hardly ever find those on other torrent sites), and they also had some great jazz albums to offer. Hoping that a new similar site will pop up soon.

Crap. Just plain crap. I could almost always find a decent rip of a rare CD at OiNK. I found some new awesome artists there. If I liked what I heard, I would purchase their albums.

Much of the community are jerks. Elitists who snickered at a member who had a question. But if you plug your fingers into your ears, sing a happy song, and stay away from the forums, you can just merrily skip away and download. And the ratio rules weren't as high as you mentioned. They were pretty fair, actually. I'll be darned if I can remember it all, but you had about 5 gigs buffer before your ratio actually counted, which is plenty to upload with.

Oink pretty much epitomizes what you would expect from a dream music sharing site with an awesome community. Sure there were those with an elitist attitude but then again those personalities are all over the web.

It's a real pity. Oink was quality. Pure and simple. Over there you could expect a perfect FLAC or V0 rip, if there was a problem, request a fixed version. I've been with the site for a while and never had any problems at all.

Sad day... sad day

Oh well

I just recently got an invite, and I was really happy to discover Steve Hoffman re-masters through FLAC rips on OiNK.

Was planning on buying a bunch of albums to support both Steve and the artists (not like The Beach Boys need any more money, but whatever), but fuck the RIAA, I'll be pirating the rest of his stuff that I'm interested in.

Damn, I really liked OiNK! It's a real shame it's gone. :(

Sorry but ...

... they just looked for it. =/

I find the idea of GFF members calling another forum "elitist" somewhat amusing.

I just started using it the other day. It was a prime source for high quality classical/orchestral music. What I liked about it was that it listed the rip quality in the torrent name, so you knew what you were getting before you got it.

First Demonoid and now Oink. Are there any other good private trackers for music?

Demonoid is still up.

Not for Canadians.

I never really cared much for OiNK, to be honest. I asked for an invite there a few months ago since I wanted to check it out, but I felt their sharing rules were so extremely strict that I just gave up on it (nothing lower than 192kbps or YOU GET BANNED, no transcodes or YOU GET BANNED lol (how the hell do you determine whether something is a transcode anyway?)). I can understand why they had these strict rules in place, but considering the fact that I had other means to get music at the time, as well as today (read: Soulseek), I didn't bother with OiNK.

I guess now I don't have to feel bad that I wasted an invite anymore.

I'm definitely going to miss Oink. Aside from good quality music, which I only partially partook of, they had a vast selection of neatly-ripped programs. There was always something to satisfy my eclectic compulsions.
I'm sure some of my school friends will miss it too, since this was my source for any obscure program they were looking for.

For someone looking for an equivalent music tracker, I hear Pedro's BTmusic Tracker is good, although its a bitch to get in.

Bizarre, I'm still not getting access. Are you absolutely sure you're not on a proxy?

Think maybe one of them got burned by an Oink member?

Dang, I had something like an 800% share ratio on there. I only downloaded a few gigs worth of stuff and for a long time I was the only seeder for a video, so my share went through the roof. I had only been using Oink when I couldn't find something elsewhere since I didn't want to kill my ratio, but it looks like it's all for naught now. :(

Well, if I downloaded a whole lot or donated a good chunk of money to these people I'd be a tad bit worried.

Don't Snitch! RULE OF DA STREETS

Ah, you saw that ep of Boondocks too...

Actually it's always been the rule of the streets, mothafucka. Don't come round here actin like you all some big fucking HOUSE NIGGA watchin whitey's television.

I liked house when it was callled Black Jack.

Honestly, that's like saying "The Pirate Bay is still up."

Demonoid is such a crap tracker, honestly.

hey.

don't talk shit about the Pirate Bay. they're bout to set up a data haven (re: William Gibson). How sweet would that be? very sweet. very.

as someone who likes free things, regardless of the legal gray areas, i'm sad to see this happen. And i've never used Oink.

It may not be the best, but the fact that I've gone there numerous times and found exactly what I was looking for (with helpful comments) renders that statement utter crap.

Some updated news and a video here:
OiNK Admin Released From Custody | TorrentFreak

OiNK was the best source of music on the web. So sad right now. :(

The problem with both of these places is that by and large people act like jerks. They don't seed and people just leave torrents abandoned and then you see it full of folks whining for a seed.

They may be cool or whatever, but the experience I have downloading from both of them is miserable.

With OiNK and other more private trackers, people are respectful, seed, and come back to torrents if they are abandoned.

So, where do I go to get V0 now that OiNK is gone? I'm really going to miss that place!

I couldn't agree more with what you said about OiNK. I don't think I've seen a private music sharing site with such ridiculous standards. Only super nerds really understand most of their particular guidelines. It was especially pathetic how everyone clung onto every little scrap they could find to seed as well. I can't say I'm sad to see it go, either. It's true that the music industry's crackdown seems futile at times, but I wonder how hard they'll try to cling onto their piece of the pie and what other tactics they'll deploy.

It's a place where people expect a certain standard of music. You can download any crap rip of music from any site. This place was an exception.

Transcording is important, because if you transcode a 96kbit mp3 into a 192kbit it will sound like shit. You know if it's transcoded or not BY RIPPING it your self, not downloading it.

This sucks, surely there will be an alternative in the future.

I beg to differ. The only key things you needed to learn was:

1) Know how to upload torrents (You have a 5GB buffer to get good with). Easiest if you seed a brand new highly requested album.

2) Have music encoded at least at 192kbps. Anybody who listens to a wide range of music keenly will tell you that a bitrate below that just doesn't cut it. I can understand this being a bit of an argumentative issue about how significant a difference can be felt but as a baseline, 192kbps and above. Standard and safe.

3) No transcodes. You only need to worry about this if you're trying to upload really popular music and your mp3 album of it sounds grainy. A simple read through of the FAQ provided will show you how to 'analyze' it. No need to understand, just know how to tell if it's a transcode that's all.

I'm gonna miss the site that's for sure. Never really interacted on the forums and their 'active' members, there but any visitor to the site will be able to say without a shot of a doubt, that that tracker oozed quality.

One of my favorite things was the suggestions I could get by looking at what other people had snatched that had gotten the same file. Sure, sometimes it was just a list of total crap, but other times I'd find out about entirely new artists or albums by artists I liked.

Honestly, my favorite thing was how they indexed bitrate in their database, and made it easily searchable. e.g. I could just type:

some search terms lossless

and it would find only lossless stuff (regardless of wether or not it was in FLAC of SHN or whatever). Demonoid sucks about that.

Fuck... I was still seeding stuff when it got raided. Looks like it's fucking CURTAINS FOR MY BROWN ASS.

Seriously though... I'm gonna miss Oink. :(

And lol at oink being in custody.

Ence... don't feel so bad. I didn't realize something was up until I checked my client this morning to discover something amiss. Went to the site to be greeted by that lovely message. Delete torrents from client and done. Wasn't a big deal for me... most of what I had on there is out-of-print anyway.
Never had an issue whenever I offered up albums. Sometimes someone would make the request for it in FLAC instead of V0, and I was happy to oblige. It didn't take a whole lot to do another rip since I actually used the music ripping guide on this site to do so.
Now to sit back and see what happens next as well as see what is going to pop up next. I know there was one site up rather quickly that was offering invites but they are based in the US and no way was I going to go for that one.

I loved OiNK, wasn't that hard for me to keep a good ratio.

There's a couple of retarded rumors and scam donation sites out there. People are relying on unreliable sites for news too much.

And I hear that ThePirateBay is releasing their own public version of OiNK, named BOiNK.

That's such a retarded combination. Imagine TPB users + OiNK. There would be lots of unseeded, transcoded, and/or fake torrents.
Is it even wise to hop on new trackers just so you can get a fix? or could this act be regarded as maintaining the fight against th authorities?

BTW, who wants some OiNK T-shirts? :P
I like the design of the OiNK piggy in the iconic Che Guevara pose.
http://www.cafepress.com/opplove
http://www.cafepress.com/opplovered
(Yes the links are from a reliable source, OiNK staff themselves)

The Pirate Bay To Bring Back OiNK | TorrentFreak

Apparently the people from TPB are going to try and run an OiNK clone called BOiNK.
Unfortunately, since they are going to be making it a public site much like TPB is now, there is going to be little in the way of quality assurance, since ratio restrictions, bans, and the like are going to make it just another torrent shit-hole like the parent site.

i loved oink, i didn't mind the whole 'elitist' attitude, just stay out of the forums and mind your own business. it's NOT THAT HARD to keep a ratio, buy an album, rip it, and upload. anything you download, just leave your computer on and let it seed. the strict rules were what made it an exception, the great quality of music, the variety, and just the fact that with the ratio, any album could be downloaded in seconds.

boy am i gonna miss it...

(boink sounds lame, public trackers = dead torrents)

TPB may start something worthwhile or it may not. Oink started out as a public tracker and eventually 'privitized'. Boink may accomplish something or it may not, just that now it has the TPB brand attached we'll see tons of people swarming it.

Heh I remember on Oct 23rd I was wondering why the vast majority of my seeded torrents were turning red in uTorrent. Thought it was another Oink tracker reset or something then visited the webpage and "Oh frak".

Check out this article at Demonbaby
When Pigs Fly: The Death of Oink, the Birth of Dissent, and a Brief History of Record Industry Suicide.

Oink was easily the best torrent site ever for music. I uploaded 100 torrents and was on there for over three years. I invited many people from GFF onto the site. I am going to miss it.

Heh yeah I remember getting my invite off you :) Many thanks for that

Don't care. I didn't like their rules or way they managed the site.

It wasn't just "okay, split a rar and create a torrent, must have over x gb, must not already be on the site." but more like, you had to properly rip it into the format you've described, perfectly, and detail the music as much as possible otherwise you risk the possibility of being banned or having your torrent nuked due to inaccurate bullshit and niggery.

Not "oh, hey, you're helping us out by uploading something! We appreciate it." but they made it feel like a privilege to be an uploader.

Fuck OiNK, I don't give a shit, maybe this will teach people to buy their own stuff for a change and maybe scene release groups will realize that leaking albums before their release date isn't a smart move in any way, shape or form. It's like niki said, they asked for it.

I assume you've never downloaded a file illegally then, huh? :eagletear:

I have. Does this discredit my opinion of people being considered gay for purchasing their albums instead of downloading them these days?

I have a well paying job. If there's something I download (yes, illegally) that I like, I purchase it. If you don't have a well paying job and if you can't afford items and resort to downloading them as your only method of getting them, yes, you are guilty, not I.

No, being Elixir discredits you from having any valid opinion about anything, ever.

The probability of you "getting what's coming to you" is the same, though. How do you know that all of those on OiNK weren't simply doing the same as you, and downloading to see if they liked it? Would you still blame them then?

You can't say all people on OiNK were downloading and then purchasing the albums. That's laughable. I'd be willing to say 10%, most likely less, would do this. The uploaders and their tight ass rules are to blame for having over 60 leaked albums on their site this year. They killed themselves because of it.

I mean it's not like something like this is unpredictable considering it's bound to be drawn to somebody's attention who can do something about it.

Yeah I don't know about you but uh I don't spend hours online finding enjoyment in belittling others to make myself feel like I'm getting one up over my fellow man since I can't do that in real life. Thank god I'm not you.

Elixir, why are you so hateful, so full of bile? It seems to me that you very frequently have some sort of negative, standoffish opinion befitting a James Dean wannabe.

Spoiler: Nobody cares, you don't look like a badass or a rebel.

You don't look like a badass or on-topic.

Yet he's still somehow a better poster than you.

Quit this "I feel so put on" shit, Hi-Potion. No one will ever feel sorry for your bullshit, just live up to your low standards and cut the act. You put on this cock-rubbing front of how you "legitimately steal" in a brilliant (read: stupid) attempt to vindicate breaking the law - but then you get more emo than a theater full of Nightmare Before Christmas fans when someone calls you out on it. Stop trying to be Jesus Christ and learn to wipe your own ass.

Except no one was calling me out on it. Learn to read. Also not cock-rubbing at all. A large portion of OiNK members illegally download their stuff and never buy it, this is common knowledge by now. A portion of them obviously purchase albums too, but it is greatly smaller.

Are you saying if I download an album I like, and purchase it, I'm doing wrong? No. You can't "rent" CDs. You can't "try before you buy" with CDs. The only way of doing this is by downloading them. This is my method of trying before I buy. Although I'm in a position where I can purchase items directly without doing so, I prefer to be cautious. It's just smart thinking.

Thankfully game torrent sites haven't been stupid enough to have accumulated over 60 leaked games within a period of 1 year and been shut down in the process unlike OiNK.

Are you serious?

Jesus H Christ on a stick...

LeHah said it best. Illegally downloading is illegally downloading. Nothing you do later can change that or give you some sort of moral superiority.

Additional Spam:
"Learn to read." :tpg:

In other words - its not stealing if it benefits what YOU like...

After all, you just said downloading material from a place that you admitted hosts it illegally can't be illegal because... sites that do host illegally get shut down?

Are you for real? Do you have a functioning brain or did your hair get so heavy as to crush your skull and lodge peices of your soft-shell scalp into your higher reasoning centers?

Yes, that's illegal, and you have no "moral superiority" over people who don't do that.

I agree it was pretty loltarded of OiNK to allow pre-release music, but other than that they were a kickin' rad music tracker. I really didn't find their upload or ratio requirements strict at all, and in fact was thankful for them because of the high quality of both the torrents and the seeding that were found there as a result.

If you want to be a cock monkey and shake your fist at the heathens who don't subscribe to the same sort of Wild Wild West karmic fantasy you seem to be so enamored with, go right ahead. Just do it somewhere else.

I like CDs. I like games. Dig deeper.

No I didn't. I said they drew attention to themselves and were closed because of it. Unlike CDs, games this year have seen 1-3 leaked releases at maximum, although I'm sure there's someone in a position of authority, something you'll never see, watching over them as well.

Considering it's completely legal to own a backed up copy of a game in my country, I don't mind at all. Downloading and trying the game out, then purchasing the game, means I then have both. Perfectly legal. And 90% of the time, I buy games I download, and I use the downloaded copies so I don't have to open my games or worry about them getting scratched.

But this is straying from the point. The point is OiNK managed to get attention and cause a ruckus over the amount of leaked material and music material in general. Due to their popularity it's no surprise this happened.

Yes, because I claimed that I have moral superiority over people who download illegally.

Wow, this is either one of the most self deluded posts I've ever read, or New Zealand didn't actually sign the Berne Convention.

No, you have no "moral superiority" because you still downloaded something to determine if it was worth buying.

What about those 10% of games that you download and don't buy? There's perfectly fine, "morally superior," methods that you can use that actually let someone not get get completely shafted in the end, to determine if it's worth it for you to have yourself.

EXCELLENT SELLER, WILL BUY FROM AGAIN A++++++++++++

Alright... Everyone shut the fuck already. Next poster who replies off topic in this thread gets a fucking thread ban.

But I'm giving Potion one anyway just to be on the safe side. Werd.