Almost all of the major news sources are misreporting the facts of the case in regards to the function and purpose of OiNK claiming that the site was “for-pay” or subscription based and “hosted copyright music on the server” when the site was COMPLETELY donation based and NEVER hosted files on the server, only small bits of generic information, .torrent files, on how to receive the files from other users, NOT illegal. It would be like telling someone how to fire a gun then getting charged for murder when they shoot someone.

There’s also the issue of IFPI using the stolen Oink.cd domain to spread propaganda, fear, uncertainty and doubt amongst the users of the site with messages such as “A criminal investigation continues into the identities and activities of the site’s users” when in actuality there was nothing criminally damning on the server in regards to the users. All of the data is generic, no transfer of copyright files EVER took place on the server, it couldn’t have by the virtue of being a torrent tracker, it just let people connect with each other.

They claim that there were over 180,000 users of OiNK, spread all throughout the world, a jurisdictional nightmare and simply cost prohibitive for anyone wanting to file suit against the users, especially given the completely spurious charges they would have to file. They have no proof that any file transfers took place and would therefore have to compel the users of the site to, in effect, point the finger at each other, impossible given that torrent clients don’t keep logs. Failing that, they would in some way prove that user x sent user y copyright files without any logs, something that would be near impossible.

Many large torrent sites have been taken down before, Lokitorrent for example, no users were ever tracked down and sued. It was much more fiscally sound for them to simply put the fear of god into pirates and try to scare them back into stores. Just more scare tactics from the people defending a dying industry on a gangrene business model, hoping that can win fans though lawsuits.