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Date: Wednesday, October 24, 2007

British and Dutch Police Crack Private File-Sharing Community

In a combined police operation, forces from Britain and Holland have worked with the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) to close OiNK, one of the biggest pre-release file-sharing communities on the Internet. Properties in Amsterdam and Teeside were searched in the operation, which led to the arrest of a 24-year-old man in Middlesborough.

The OiNK file-sharing community specialised in the distribution of pre-release albums and the IFPI believe “more than 60 major album releases have been leaked on OiNK so far this year.” Pre-release piracy is a major problem for record companies, as they cause a loss in revenue. As many of the tracks leaked online are unfinished, tracks may also lack the polish of a finished song, which reflects badly on the artist and record company.

As soon as an album leaked on OiNK, members were encouraged to distribute files via blogs, websites and file-sharing software. This means, as the IFPI note, “within a few hours of a popular pre-release track being posted on the OiNK site, hundreds of copies could be found further down the illegal online supply chain.”

Unlike Napster and other file-sharing communities, OiNK was a private, members-only site. Membership was by invitation-only and according to a Cleveland police spokesperson, “Members paid ‘donations’ via debit or credit cards, ensuring their continued access to the site.” This meant that OiNK proved to be pretty lucrative for its owners. In order to retain access to the site, members would also have to prove that they could offer pre-release music by regularly uploading illegal music files.

As a private community, OiNK bosses would no doubt have felt protected from prosecution. However, as the recent Jammie Thomas case shows, the record industry is taking serious steps to clamp down on illegal file sharing and downloads.

Sources:

BBC
International Federation of the Phonographic Industry