Oink goes down bigtime

The worlds largest source of pirated pre-release chart albums has been shut down.

Oink users where welcomed to their favorite website with this message on Tuesday the 23rd of October: “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. ”

“It is alleged the site was operated by a 24-year-old man who lived near Middlesbrough in north-east England. He was arrested on Tuesday. The site’s servers, based in Amsterdam, were seized in raids last week.” News 24

Early reports mention that more than 60 major album releases had been leaked via the net in this way in 2007 alone.

“Jeremy Banks, head of the IFPI’s Internet Anti-Piracy Unit, has stated that OiNK was central to the illegal distribution of pre-release music ” Wikipedia

As with so many other BitTorrent websites Oink has finally met its maker. RIP Oink.